Fortunes Buried in Sand
by Infernal Blossom
Summary: Shortly following the events of Battle City, a new student transfers into the King of Games' class at the beginning of the next school year. She's lazy, obnoxious, and constantly getting herself in trouble. The gang tries their best to keep her on the right path, but they soon realize it'll take more than words of wisdom to clear a path through the danger and murder. REDONE!
1. Duel 1: The One from Canada

The sun rose to shine on a brand new day over Domino City. Deep in the heart of the city, the window on the top floor of a well-known game shop opened up, allowing a gust of fresh air to fly in. A head poked out and watched the bright solar lights creep up above the buildings. "I can already tell," Yugi said to himself in a happy tone, "this is going to be a great day." He'd been in a blissful mood ever since saving the world from the wrath of Marik's dark side a few weeks before. He still remembered the chaotic adventure home that followed soon after, and how Kaiba scared the crap out of everyone when appearing in a Blue Eyes modeled aircraft from the smoke of his exploding island. Jonouchi nearly killed him for pulling that stunt. Summer vacation had drawn to a close, and school was starting up again. He couldn't wait to be back in the familiar setting with his friends – Ryuji showing off some more dice tricks to his surrounding fan girls; Jonouchi and Hiroto trying to wrestle each other to the floor; Ryou watching them with a worried glance; and Anzu trying to break up their scuffle. He had to admit, he missed the normalcy of being a teen in high school. This past summer had been so out-of-this-world that he couldn't wait to head to class and just hang out with his friends... Well, life wouldn't be **completely** normal. He still carried the spirit of a five thousand year old pharaoh – who happened to be his past life – inside of an unnecessarily large metal pendant. But aside from that and all the attempts on his life since putting the pendant together, life was pretty much ordinary.

Yugi quickly got ready for class and headed outside. He couldn't wait to have a nice relaxing day with his friends. As he was crossing the street next to Domino High, a skateboarder suddenly sped past him, nearly making him fall to the ground. "Hey!" he yelled to the skateboarder, who just rode onto the school grounds without a response. He shook his head and sighed, continuing into the building. A few feet from the entrance, the spirit of the puzzle materialized next to him.

"_That stunt was rude,"_ Yami told him. _"That person nearly ran you over and didn't even bother to apologize." _

Yugi just waved it off and ran into the building, heading upstairs to class 1-B. "It's alright," he replied.

He saw his friends already inside and waved to them, hearing the rest of his classmates cheer his name as he walked into the classroom. "About time you got 'ere, Yug," Jonouchi called to his friend, pounding his fist against Yugi's. Along with his group of friends, the entire class was buzzing. There was excitement in the air not only about the start of the new school year, but with talk of everyone's summer vacation experience and Yugi's Battle City win. Some students pat the teen's shoulders and congratulated him as they passed him by. "There's a lot of talk going around about you winning Battle City. You're starting to get a hell of a lot of fangirls, even more than Ryuji."

"I doubt it's _that_ serious," he answered in a chuckle. "I don't play for the fame like he does."

"That's a surprise," they heard Ryou say to another group of students, who nodded in response to him. "Well, I suppose there was no way of us finding out before today." He gave his thanks and rejoined his friends. "Well apparently there's talk about more than Battle City and summer vacation." He took a seat next to Yugi and folded his arms on top of the desk. "I heard some other people talking about us getting a new student in our class."

"Oh yeah? Where's this new student coming from?" Anzu asked.

"From what the others have told me, Canada. They heard that he or she got expelled, but that's all anyone knows." He shrugged his shoulders.

The bell signaling the start of class rang, and everyone took their seats as the teacher walked in. "Alright, class, let's settle down." She took her seat in front of the classroom and opened her supply bag. "I'm sure everyone would like to congratulate Muto-kun for his victory in this past summer's Duel Monsters tournament, but you'll have to wait until this lesson is over. We'll be having a quiz on ancient Egypt next week." The class simultaneously booed at the thought until the teacher quieted them down, but Yugi grew excited about it. With all he learned this past summer, that test would be pretty easy. "Now I'm going to take attendance before the lesson starts." The teacher picked up her pen and pulled the attendance book out of her bag. While she turned to the page with her class list, another student waltzed into the classroom, quickly heading for the desk farthest in the back. Unfortunately for him, the teacher looked up from her book and caught him before he could go past the first row. "Hold it," she said to him. "You're the new student here, aren't you? Come back up to the front. You haven't been properly introduced yet." The new student shook his head and grumbled, dragging himself back to the teacher's desk as the instructor stood next to him, clearing her throat. "As I'm sure you've all heard, there was a rumor spreading throughout the school about a new exchange student. Well you can all see that it's true." All the eyes in the classroom were on the new student. He had pale skin and wore the Domino High male student uniform – blue pants, a white collared shirt and a blue jacket – but the clothing seemed to fit his body strangely, kind of snug in a way. Ryuji noticed how the clothing seemed to fit the tightest around his chest and waist. On his head was a red skating helmet, which matched his red and gray sneakers. He held a boldly designed skateboard in his left hand, and everyone could easily hear the sound of gum popping- Yugi's eyes widened. _'That's the guy that almost ran me over'_, he realized. He took a closer look at the new student and saw strands of ginger hair with black on the tips, most of them covering his right eye, only allowing his gray left eye to be seen. "So go ahead and introduce yourself. And take off that helmet. You should know that headwear isn't allowed to be worn in the school building." The new student gave a heavy sigh and took off the skating helmet, and everyone's jaws dropped.

A wave of bright ginger hair fell out from under the helmet, flowing down to his shoulder blades and cascading outward. The male student turned out to, in fact, be a female student wearing the wrong uniform. "Yo," she said to them, waving a hand. "Name's Sandra Evans." She fell silent and glanced over her shoulder to the instructor, who motioned for her to go on. "What else am I supposed to say?"

"Maybe tell everyone a little bit about yourself?"

"Yeah...I got expelled from my school in Canada because I was too cool for the ass wipes there. So...yeah. That's it." She blew a bubble and popped it, making sure it was purposely loud enough for her to make the teacher twitch in annoyance.

"Yes. Thank you for that, Sandra." The teacher took note of Sandra's attire and sighed, pushing up her glasses. "I hope you realize that you're wearing the wrong uniform. Since this is your first day, I'll let this slide. Hopefully you'll take tonight to learn the rules along with reviewing today's lesson." She allowed her to take her seat and she immediately went for the available seat farthest in the middle, which happened to be behind Anzu and to the left of Ryuji.

As the teacher began taking attendance, Ryuji wrote a note and tossed it onto her table. Sandra opened the paper and read his words: By the time you finish reading this note, you'll be clearing your schedule to go out with me. She re-read his note twice before snickering to herself, trying hard not to attract the instructor's attention. Ryuji smirked and raised his hand as his name was called, thinking he'd successfully lured the new girl in. Hiroto saw them smiling to one another from three rows up. Another girl attracted to the player? Yeah, that was just what he needed. He couldn't bear to see another girl join his already massive harem. If that wasn't bad enough, his third attempt at asking Miho Nosaka, his crush for the past four years, out on a date didn't go so well. She denied him **AGAIN**, further destroying his ego. He'd tried talking to Jonouchi about it, which helped a little, but he'd started dabbling more with the opposite sex as well. He was pretty much on his own.

Sandra, already appearing bored, aimlessly folded Ryuji's note and flung it across the room. She half-listened as the instructor finished calling everyone's names. The teacher stood up from her desk and began writing notes on the board. "As you all know from last year's lessons," she began, "ancient Egypt was divided into three intermediate periods: the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom and the New Kingdom." Many of the students started taking notes on the lesson. Sandra's head tilted and her face twisted, seeing the chalk create Japanese kanji on the blackboard. How was she supposed to learn anything if she couldn't read it? The instructor spoke in English to her, and it was understandable, so why not give the lesson in the same manner? _'Oh, right, everyone else is a Jap.'_ A paper flying onto her desk caught her attention. It was a second note from Ryuji, again written in English so she could understand it. Feel free to ask me for help if you need a translator. I'm quite thorough when it comes to helping someone in need. She raised an eyebrow. He wasn't going to quit, was he? Well, at least he was going to be partially useful. However, she decided it was time to catch up on her sleeping. She laid her head down on her notebook and glanced over to Ryuji, who seemed to become a part of the pro-studying crowd. She figured it to be another attempt to impress her. _How pathetic._ Was he seriously hitting on her? Sandra laughed to herself again, popping her gum as she chewed it. There was a feeling of guilt in her – only slight – knowing she'd only be using him to translate the strange crossing lines of kanji into something she could read. Sandra yawned, and began drowning out the voice of her instructor. Her eyes closed and she dozed off. Anzu, who had coincidentally glanced behind her while copying the black board, saw the new girl dozing off. She reached behind her shoulder and poked her pen into her head until Sandra woke up.

"Hmm? What is it?" Sandra mumbled just loud enough for Anzu to be the only one to hear. Anzu pointed her pen to the black board, signaling that she should be paying attention to the lesson, and resumed copying the notes. Sandra laid back down, now facing Ryuji, who was winking at her. Maybe using him would be fun.

Class took forever to end. Sandra stood up from her seat when the bell rang and stretched her arms above her head. "Man, that nap sucked!" She pulled out her schedule and wandered into the hall, skateboard in hand. Good thing it was typed in English. Where was her next class supposed to be? She overheard a few students talking – in Japanese, of course. One of them mentioned a few words she knew, something having to do with her next instructor. For once she was glad to be able to grasp a little of the language. They were in the same class, so she followed them. Sandra entered the moment the bell rang. The class consisted of a lot of the same people, including Yugi and his friends. They watched her walk to the back of the classroom and take the desk in the farthest corner, propping her feet up onto it. She set the skateboard and her bag under the desk, pulling out a pair of bulky gray headphones and immediately putting them on.

Anzu and the others pulled their eyes from her and back to their little congregation. "I can't believe she's not even wearing the right uniform," she told her friends. "And then she passed out behind me last class! That's probably why she got expelled from her last school." A sigh escaped her lips. "Freaking delinquent."

"You could just be jumping to conclusions," Ryou intervened. "Maybe she didn't get enough sleep last night. She could just be tired." Everyone glanced at her a second time, noticing that she'd pulled out a lighter and had started flicking it while loudly popping her gum. Ryou felt a shiver crawl down his spine. "On second thought, she could probably be fresh out of juvie." She was pretty intimidating.

An older, graying man walked into the classroom and sat at the teacher's desk, redirecting the students' attention. "I'm sorry to say that your regular teacher won't be in for a few days," he started. "He called in sick at the last minute, and that means we have no lesson plan. So until your teacher returns, I'll be supervising you. Feel free to socialize and relax."

Cheers surfaced all around the room, and the students regrouped. Yugi's friends sat in a circle of desks near each other. "So who wants to break the ice with the new girl?" Hiroto asked his friends. He didn't notice Ryuji making his way over to her until Anzu pointed in her direction. "Man, he works fast..." Everyone else watched as he went to make his move. Hiroto looked at Sandra's face again, seeing her bored expression, and smirked. "There's no way he'll be able to add her to his list."

The green eyed teenager sat next to Sandra. "Hey, what's up?" he asked her, but he received no response. "Hello?" He could hear her music through the thick plastic covering her ears. It was too loud for her to hear anything through. She didn't notice he was sitting next to her until she felt his hand tap on her foot. The girl sighed and slipped her headphones down to her shoulders, pausing the music.

"Can I help you?"

"Maybe I can help **you**," he replied. "I heard you giggling last period when you read my little messages. It was almost as intoxicating as your looks."

Sandra blinked at him, still playing around with her lighter. She didn't expect him to make a move on her so quickly. "And your point would be...what, now?"

Ryuji moved his chair closer to her, watching her chew her gum. "My point is that I'd love to make you laugh more. On a date with just the two of us, maybe?"

"Yeah...no thanks." She pulled the headphones over her ears again and started up the music. Ryuji tried asking her something, probably why she turned him down, but all sound outside of her music had become inaudible. "What? Sorry, I can't hear you. My music is REALLY loud." There was no way Ryuji was going to get through to her. After one last attempt, he decided to give up for the day. Maybe this one would take a little longer to break in.

He returned to his friends, who all seemed worried for some reason. "That girl's a stubborn one. But sooner or later, she'll surrender to the charm."

"Maybe introducing yourself would've been better than asking her out right away," Yugi commented. "Not all girls like that direct of an approach."

"He's got a point there," Jonouchi added, folding his arms behind his head. He turned to glance at Sandra again. "Then again, it's what Ryuji's used to doin'. 'Specially with girls with that type of look."

Yugi rose from his seat. "Maybe I should try talking to her. She probably just needs a friendlier welcome than what she's gotten today." Ryuji's eye twitched when hearing Yugi speak. Even if he **was** right, it wasn't like he could resist her. She was gorgeous. Yugi made his way over to the ginger haired girl and tapped her leg to get her attention. Once more, she looked up at him and slipped her headphones around her neck, ceasing all her previous actions. She stayed silent, waiting to see how this experience would play out. "Um, hi," he started. "I'm Yugi Muto. I'm the one you almost...ran over this morning." As he paused for a response, Sandra blew a large bubble and popped it, and pulled the strands of gum back into her mouth to begin the ritual again. The lone eyebrow he could see on her raised slightly.

"So, uhh, what, is it 'Bring Your Kid To Work Day' or something?" Some students sitting a few rows away heard Sandra's comment and began laughing, one hitting his head on the window as he fell backwards. Yugi chuckleded condescendingly and pretended that he hadn't heard her. "Relax. I was just kidding. So what can I do you for, Yogi?"

"I-it's Yugi," he corrected her. "Anyway, I just wanted to welcome you to Domino High and Japan. And if you ever need help with anything, my friends and I would be more than happy to assist you. Don't be hesitant about asking us anything." He offered her a warm smile, but her mind had already left the conversation. She'd gone back to playing with her lighter. "Uhh...Sandra?"

The ginger haired teen looked up from her lighter, a blank expression written on her face. "Huh? Oh, sorry. Were you still talking?" When he didn't answer, she resumed her previous activities. Yugi was three seconds away from slamming his hand onto his forehead. Sandra Evans was a strange one. He stood up, shaking his head, and returned to his friends, only to find that they had moved up to the front near the windows.

He caught up with them and pulled up an empty seat. "What's going on?" Yugi looked over Jonouchi's shoulder and saw two of his classmates deep into a game of Duel Monsters.

"Okay, so it's my turn," the first duelist said, drawing another card. "Umm... I'll play Luster Dragon #2 in attack position, and Meteor Dragon in defense position..." He gave his opponent a smug smirk, proud of his play. "My dragons are strong, so there's no way you can beat them." Jonouchi shook his head. He'd been watching the duel from the start, and there was zero passion or excitement in it; they weren't even playing right. He wished Battle City were still going on. Now there were a couple of **real** duelists.

Hiroto leaned back in his chair and saw Sandra standing behind him, headphones around her neck. "Whoa!" He almost fell backwards, but the exchange student passing by him saved him from getting a big gash on the back of his head.

She pushed her way to the front circle and saw the duel that was taking place, not noticing Yugi and Jonouchi on either side of her. She looked down at all the cards on the field, and checked each duelist's hand. "Seriously?" Sandra mumbled to herself, shaking her head. "As if it wasn't bad enough they're not even playing right. And this kid sounds like a Kaiba audition!" Yugi overheard her. _'So she knows about Duel Monsters... Maybe she plays.'_ She left the sad excuse of a duel and fetched her belongings, walking over to the teacher's desk. "Hey, I've gotta go to the bathroom."

"Alright. Try not to take too long." She shrugged her shoulders and walked out of the room. Ryou watched her leave and returned his attention to the duel. Twenty minutes passed and the bell rang, with Sandra nowhere to be seen, and the students headed to their next class, where she was still a no-show. They assumed she just decided to cut class, and the guy heard Anzu call her a delinquent in her cough. Yugi sighed. He'd found a way to break her shell, and he couldn't even try to get her to open up to him.

After their classes ended, the group decided to head to Yugi's place to begin studying for their quiz. They would've invited Sandra, had she not vanished after second period. The six of them walked into the card shop and said their hellos as they passed by Yugi's grandfather to head upstairs, who promised to bring them some snacks and drinks. Once inside the small bedroom, Jonouchi jumped onto the bed and pushed off his sneakers. "So what should we do now?" he asked.

"I'll give you something!" Hiroto challenged him, thinking it a wise decision to jump on top of him and start a wrestling match. Anzu, of course, tried pulling them off of each other.

"Hey! Quit it with the rough housing!" Yugi shook his head at them and went right for the laptop on his desk, while Ryuji and Ryou flipped through the channels on television. Yugi wanted to see if there were any new card releases being scheduled. He logged onto a website run by his grandfather's shop and went through a few pages.

"No new ones yet..." As he scrolled down the page, he stumbled upon a video ready to be played. It had been reccommended by another dueling website. "Hey, what's this?" The preview image for the video showed a hand holding up a photo of Seto Kaiba attached to some Blue Eyes White Dragon printouts. **'The Truth Behind The Blue Eyes'**, it was called. "Makes sense if it's about Kaiba. I wonder..." He clicked the video and was directed to another site, where the video began to load. As it loaded, he scrolled down to the comments and views. There were already 4,000 comments and nearly 600,000 views, and the video had only been up for four hours. It finished loading and Yugi hit the play button, turning up the volume. Within the first two seconds, he let out a surprised shriek that got his friends' full attention. "Guys!" The rest of the group gathered around his laptop and immediately gave the same reaction, muting the television. Sandra was in the video, in a different outfit, holding up a picture of Kaiba in a dueling pose.

"Oh, shit..." Jonouchi whispered.

"Hey there, guys," she started. "MasterFL99 reporting in to all my dedicated fans. It's that time of the week again: time for a 'Duelist of the Week' rant. Take a guess as to who's the subject this time. I'm here to talk to you about an iconic figure of sorts: Seto Kaiba. Now we all know him as the guy who organized Battle City and created Duel Disks. I know, great accomplishment for someone who's only sixteen. But there is another side to him, kids. That side is the one I know him as: an egotistical dick with a BIG dragon fetish. He's the type of person who can't even pay a high class whore enough to spend the night in his house." She put down the picture and picked up a new paper, showing it to the viewers. "You see this, people? This is Kaiba's credit card bill. Don't ask how I got it. I'm just that good." Jonouchi and Hiroto were starting to die of laughter, and Ryou appeared horrified. "Now if you look at the charge from a few weeks ago, it says that our dear Dragon Boy paid 4,848,900 yen to create a security system for his precious jizz dragons. You know what that is in Canadian dollars? Over CA$ 50,000! Well guess what, Kaiba?" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a Blue Eyes White Dragon card. "You know, security systems aren't always better if they're expensive. Anyway, back to your dragon fetish. No girl will ever want to be with you, look at you, smell you, and ESPECIALLY sleep with you, not in any amount of eternities. And do you wanna know WHY?" She pulled up another piece of paper from the table next to her. This one had a drawing or Kaiba standing next to three people in Blue Eyes costumes. "Because unless you've got a tail, blue scaly skin and shoot lightning for no fucking reason, you're not good enough him. He'd much rather have a four way with holograms of his precious widdle babies than buy his own personal strip club. Kaiba, you'll never know what boobs feel like in your hands." She picked up a champagne glass filled with soda and toasted it. "Here's to you, ass wipe, and the balls you never had!" Sandra downed the entire glass of soda before reaching to the screen, which instantly went blank.

"...Well..." Yugi started, "That was...uhh..." He didn't know what to say about the video. Nobody did. Hiroto and Jonouchi had finished laughing, and by the end of the video, were beginning to look scared. What person in their right mind would dare to go THAT far to share how they feel about Seto Kaiba with the rest of the world, ESPECIALLY by doing so via the internet?

* * *

><p>Over at KaibaCorp, the entire building was silent. The only sound that could be heard was that of Sandra's voice, all throughout the building, through computer speakers. Mokuba, the younger of the Kaiba brothers, was on his way to the CEO office, when he suddenly saw an office phone fly out of the room. When the coast was clear, Mokuba poked his head into the office. Seto, his brother, had his fists clenched on top of his desk. "Uhm...big brother?"<p>

"You're in deep shit now, MasterFL99..."


	2. Duel 2: Death Sentence

Kaiba's fists shook, and his body rattled as he leaned on his desk. "She's got some nerve," he muttered, ignoring his brother's presence. "How dare that bitch slander my name!" His hands slammed onto the surface, causing his brother to jump a bit. Kaiba closed his eyes and began taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm himself. He needed to relax and clear his head so he could figure out a solution to this mess. He opened one eye, glancing at the paused video, which showed the ginger haired teen who created it. His stare immediately became a scowl. "Looks like I'll have to convince her to take this trash down. Hopefully she's smart enough to listen." Kaiba reached into his blazer pocket, fishing out a silver flask. It had a Blue Eyes wrapping around its entirety, with the head forming the cap. He unscrewed the cap and took a long sip of its contents. Mokuba shook his head as he watched. Ever since coming back from the island where the Battle City finals were held, Seto had become easily stressed and irritated, thus resulting in him taking up drinking. He didn't approve of his older brother's so-called cure for the stress, nor know how he was able to get away with it. Perhaps immunity from certain laws came with the power of being the teenage CEO of a multi-billion dollar company. He knew, though, there was very little he could do about it. "Mokuba." Hearing Seto's voice snapped him back to what was going on around him.

"Yes, Seto?"

"I have a job for you." Kaiba closed the flask and returned it to his blazer pocket. He spun his laptop around so the younger Kaiba could see the image of the video's creator. "Find out everything you can about this girl: name, age, address, EVERY detail. I'm going to put a stop to her." Mokuba nodded and ran out of the office to get started on his task. The sooner he got it done, the sooner Seto would stop throwing office phones. "I'll make sure she pays for this."

* * *

><p>"Is she suicidal?" Hiroto yelled. "Okay, so I think Kaiba's overly obsessed with his Blue Eyes cards, too. But pulling a stunt like THAT? Sandra's really asking him to murder her. Somebody has to talk some sense into this chick!"<p>

"Well you can count me in. The sooner we find her, the sooner I can get her number," Ryuji said, crossing his arms and grinning. "First things first: we need to find out where she is." He began thinking of places they could find Sandra. School had started on a Friday that year, so they wouldn't see her there until after the weekend. And they knew it'd probably be too late by then.

Yugi tapped a finger on the desk. "I do remember seeing Sandra carrying a skateboard. She'd probably be hanging out at a skate park... I think there's one about two kilometers-"

"I see her!" they suddenly heard Ryou yell. He pointed to the window and all eyes immediately looked through the glass, seeing Sandra coming down the block on her skateboard. Ryou pulled open the window and leaned out halfway, waving his arms to get her attention, with Hiroto trying his best to push through what little space was left between his friend and the pane. "Sandra!" he yelled again as she came closer to passing the game shop. "Hey, slow down!" He looked closer at her and spotted her gray headphones covering the only receiving sound passage she had. "She's got her music on. She won't be able to hear us."

While the two of them yelled for her attention with no success, Anzu and the others ran down stairs as fast as they could. The door to the game shop swung open and they lunged out of the small building in hopes of flagging down their new classmate before she got herself in trouble. Sandra reached the shop and didn't see anyone trying to gain her attention. "At this rate, she'll keep going without seeing us." Anzu ran off the curb, waving her arms to the transfer student. She managed to catch Sandra's attention for a second, but quickly lost it as she saw a large yellow bubble form in front of her fact. It blocked their views of one another, and Sandra nearly ran over Anzu. As she glided past them, the brunette teen clenched her fists tight and glared at the skater. "DELINQUENT!" she shrilled, not getting any sort of response.

"Looks like we'll literally have to grab her," Jonouchi told his friends. "I'm gonna make a run for it." He made a mad dash down the street in an attempt to stop Sandra, but she was gradually picking up speed. He had to stop after a few minutes to catch his breath. "Damn, she's fast! How are we s'posed to stop her when she's speeding down the road like a maniac?" Sandra went even faster, right towards the changing traffic light, which she didn't notice. A limousine was fast approaching the intersection from the left, and Sandra was headed right for it, but she was too distracted by her headphones to notice it. "Look out!" Jonouchi yelled, hoping she'd hear him.

Luckily, she did. She finished adjusting her headphones just in time to hear the limousine headed toward her honking. "Whoa!" Sandra veered to the right, barely avoiding the limo's grill, and slipped off of her skateboard. The board flew through the air and crashed into the back window of the limousine, hitting its sole passenger straight across the nose. Sandra hit the pavement and rolled around a few times before finally stopping, completely unaware of the limo skidding to a stop right beside her. "...Damn...car..." Her shaky arms and legs prevented her from pushing herself off the pavement in one shot. "Shit..." Finally rolling onto her back, Sandra heard some familiar voices.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" Anzu yelled. Sandra managed to sit up, not yet realizing the extent of her injuries. She had a large open wound on her chin that had started to bleed, making Anzu shriek. "Y-y-your chin is all bloody!" The guys came up to her, Hiroto and Ryou following close behind. Sandra flashed a fake 'a-okay' smile and went to do a thumbs up, but felt a sudden stinging in her arm. She quickly found the source: a wide scrape covering her entire left elbow. Tea shrieked again, nearly going for a third time when her eyes were drawn to the long gash covering most of Sandra's lower leg and knee. "What were you thinking? You should've been watching the road!"

Sandra only shrugged as she was helped up by Ryuji, wincing from the stinging of her wounds. "I should've been watching the road? HE was the one speeding! He was in MY way! Besides, I had the light!" She wanted to go over to the limo and give the driver and passenger what for, but the large scrape on her leg kept her leaning on Ryuji for support. Her words made Anzu hit her palm to her forehead and groan. _'Did Sandra seriously think the crash was the car's fault? SHE was the one speeding down the middle of the street, and she didn't even have the light like she said.'_

While Anzu continued to scold Sandra and shriek at the sight of blood oozing, Hiroto and Jonouchi went to check on the passenger in the limousine. "Hey!" Hiroto yelled. "You alright in there?" The limo driver frantically stepped out from the front and ran to the back door, yanking it open.

"M-M-Master Kaiba!"

The drive began to have a little freak out, which was quickly passed on to the guys. Jonouchi and Hiroto looked through the now shattered back window of the vehicle, and saw Kaiba leaning on the windowless side door, holding his nose with a blood covered hand. Broken glass was everywhere, and Sandra's skateboard lay a few inches in front of him, showing no evidence of any type of impact. Kaiba glared up at the blond and sneered. "The hell are you just standing there for?" he snarled. "Go call someone before I break YOUR nose in!" His eyes shifted over to the unblocked portion of what used to be a window and saw Sandra with her arm around Ryuji's neck. "It's...her..." he stammered, realizing who had caused this. His free hand tightened into a fist and his knuckles whitened. First she humiliated him on the internet, and then she tried to destroy his physical image? Her rank quickly rose on his hit list.

Jonouchi turned around for a moment and yelled, "Ryou! Call the paramedics quick! He's got blood coming out of his nose!" Imagining the sight nearly made him dizzy, but Ryou managed to stay conscious and aware, and pulled his cellphone out from his pocket. He started dialing and pacing the floor, trying to remain as calm as possible.

As the ambulances arrived on the scene, a small crowd began gathering around them. The paramedics acted quickly, pulling Sandra and Kaiba onto stretchers to start on-sight treatment. Kaiba was packed into the truck and whisked off right away, given his broken nose and how close he was to committing a crime against the skater. Sandra was surprisingly calm as the EMTs started treating her wounds, even after hearing that she would need stitches in her chin. She tried turning down Yugi's offer to meet with her at the hospital to no avail. They followed behind the ambulance in Ryuji's car, still trying to process what had just occurred. When they arrived, Ryou had managed to get ahold of one of the doctors treating Kaiba and Sandra. "Mr. Kaiba's been treated. He suffered no severe damage or broken bones and is in the process of being released," one of them told the group "As for you other friend, she'll have to stay for another hour or two. She's a bit on the loopy side from being sedated so we could stitch up the gash on her chin, but she can communicate just fine."

"Can we go in and see her?" Yugi asked. The doctors nodded, and led he group to Sandra's room in the emergency department. They could hear her laughing hysterically as they walked in, seemingly oblivious to the large scrapes covering her arm and leg, and the stitches in her face. They could see a man standing next to her bed, who seemed to be the one making her laugh so hard. He had the same complexion and ginger hair as Sandra, a backwards baseball cap and sunglasses, and a toothpick sticking out from between his teeth.

Sandra's gaze caught the group walking in. "Hey, guys! Wassup?" She then concentrated on Yugi, continuing, "Oh my god, Yooogiiiii! C'mere, buddy!" He approached the side of the bed, glancing at the man beside her.

"So," the man started, "you must be the crew who found my wreck of a sister." He stuck out his hand toward Yugi and shot him a big grin, shaking the teenager's entire body with the handshake. "Jack Evans, nine time motocross champion of Canada. Nice to meet ya, squirt!"

"H-Hey! That hurts!" Yugi groaned pitifully, trying to pull his arm out of her grip.

"Jack, don't pull off his arm!" Sandra yelled to him, laughing even harder and snorting a little. "I don't think it grows back... Does it?"

"Alright alright, that's enough outta youse." Jonouchi intervened, unwrapping Sandra's drugged hand from Yugi's forearm, leaving him to nurse his injured limb. "So what, we're s'posed to leave Sandra with this Class-A dick bag? I dunno...Doesn't feel right." He crossed his arms, giving Jack a skeptical look.

Jack only laughed at his comment. "Aw, relax, little man. I'll take care of my little sister when I take her home tonight." He gave Jonouchi a friendly punch in the arm. He hadn't been prepared for it, though, causing him to stumble back a few feet and Sandra to burst out laughing again and clap her hands.

"You got 'im fur shure, bro!" she slurred, suddenly hiccuping.

She just continued laughing, totally unaware of all the jaws that had been dropped after hearing that Jack was her older brother. "I see the personality runs in the family," Anzu commented. She glanced back at Sandra, who was in yet another fit of giggling after discovering that she had ten fingers.

Ryou had propped himself against the wall next to her bed. He'd been pretty quiet since arriving at the hospital with his friends. He wasn't sure what to say to Sandra: she'd been so intimidating before, and now she was so out of it. It freaked him out a bit. While listening in on everyone's conversations, Ryou happened to look down at the table between him and Sandra's bed. His eyes landed on a necklace that was lying on the table top. "Hmm..." he said quietly to himself. It was a nice necklace, and it looked like a locket. The gold metal wasn't very thick, maybe six centimeters at the most. It almost resembled armor with the way the metal plates overlapped one another. At the top was a small loop, which had a long chain going through it. On the front and facing the ceiling was an eye...wait, that wasn't right. An eye? Ryou blinked to make sure he wasn't seeing things. The eye remained. It looked a lot like the one that the Millennium Items possessed. His own eyes widened. But how was that possible? There were only seven Millennium Items in existence, and the last time he heard from anyone who had or guarded one, a Millennium Locket wasn't on the list. So was this locket some sort of fan-made prop, a fake?

Something stirred in Ryou's stomach, and whatever it was, it sickened him. He closed his eyes and wrapped an arm around his stomach, taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm his nerves. "...What's wrong with me? I hope I didn't get food poisoning from today's lunch..." But when he opened his eyes and happened to glance at the locket again, just for a split second, the churning in his body became erratic. "Oh my-" Ryou clasped a hand over his mouth and ran out of the room, speeding down the hall to the nearest men's room. He quickly locked the one-stall space and fell to his knees in front of the toilet. A few minutes passed and relief finally hit him, feeling his body empty. Ryou flushed his former bowel contents away and weakly stumbled over to the sink to rinse out his mouth, still having no idea why he felt so horrible. A terrible pain had developed in his chest, and he didn't know why. He managed to catch himself on the countertop before blacking out. He laid there, motionless for a moment, until his grip on the counter's edge tightened until his knuckles turned white It remained that way until he pulled himself to his feet and looked up at the mirror. His eyes had become fiercer, darker, as did his scowl and hair.

"So..." Bakura said to his reflection, "she's back, huh?" His grip loosened as he went to rinse out the remnants of Ryou's response to his emotions, wishing there had been a bottle of mouthwash around somewhere. Bakura pulled up his shirt, revealing a twisted mass of flesh that marred his chest. He could feel the Millennium Ring resonating within him, demanding an escape. He bit his lower lip until it bled, choking back a scream as the mystical object seared through his skin, embedding itself in the scar on his chest and leaving thin trails of blood to cascade down his torso. As he wiped the blood trickling from his mouth, a sudden memory began to play in his mind.

_He still didn't want to believe the news, even after hearing her say it three consecutive times. It enraged him deeply. He wanted to pull out his knife and stick it in someone, ANYONE, to relieve the anger he felt inside...including her. "I have to leave by sunrise. My belongings have already been moved out of my home. I wish I could've told you sooner, but..." Her voice ceased as she turned away from him, beginning to walk away from him. "...I'm sorry, Akefia..."_

Bakura held his face in his hands, now shaking, trying hard to keep himself from punching the mirror. "Five thousand years after your death, and yet you still haunt me..." He moved a hand down to his pocket and yanked out a pocket knife, flipping out the blade. He opened his hand, palm up, and pulled the tip of the blade across his skin, from his thumb to the base of his ring finger. "Not even a knife could stop you..." Bakura stared at the blade and his blood for a second more, and a devious smirk came across his face as he licked the red iron-flavored liquid from the knife. "I suppose I'll just have to fix that, then, huh?" He began to laugh a little before pushing the blade back into its handle and throwing the knife in his pocket. There were tests and preparations to be done.

* * *

><p>Within two hours, the sedative was wearing off. Sandra began to calm down and sit still. Finally, Yugi and his friends were able to approach her about the actions she'd taken earlier that day. "Hey, Sandra," he started, looking worried, "what's with that video you made today?"<p>

"Huh?"

"Don't act like you don't know," Anzu cut it. "You made a video after you cut class today. The one about Kaiba? Remember?"

She stared up at the ceiling. "Oh, right. _That_ one. Yeah, that's one of those specials I do on my page every once in a while." Sandra smirked, but it vanished when she saw the looks on everyone's faces. "Okay, you're obviously not telling me something. What is it?" Ryuji sat on the chair next to her and, not to his friends' surprise, took her hand.

"You've set up a death sentence for yourself. TWICE. We're all sure Kaiba has seen the video by now, and is probably in a fit of rage about it. He'll do whatever possible to make sure you're reprimanded for it."

"So?" She snatched her hand away. "There's nothing he can do about the video. Once something's on the web, it's there forever. Everyone knows that!" She shrugged, but stopped when the pain resurfaced through her arm. "And what do you mean, twice? The video's the only thing I did." She noticed Yugi twiddling his fingers, and stared at him until he felt uncomfortable.

"Well...how do I put this?" He nervously held onto the chain around his neck. "It was Kaiba's limo that almost hit you. And...your skateboard almost broke his nose."

Her hands hit the metal frame of the stretcher as she shot up. "What?" The throbbing increased with the sudden impact and she winced, holding her arm.

Hiroto leaned against the wall. "Yeah, he was hurt pretty bad. But the doctor said nothing was broken, so they cleaned him up and released him-"

"I can't believe that ass tried to kill me!" she yelled, feeling another round of stinging hit her chin. "He was really trying to kill me! What the hell's wrong with him?"

Jonouchi shook his head. "That's what we've been trying to tell you, but you're always listenin' to your music and not us! Kaiba's a dick, yes, but he's also dangerous. You gotta be careful of what you say around him."

"And we all think it's best," Anzu finished, "if you took down the video."

Sandra crossed her arms. "Nope. Not happening."

"Are those injuries of yours NOT a reminder of how vicious he is?"

"Yeah, but so what? Someone has to put him in his place. Nobody else was willing to do it, so I did." Jack pat her shoulder and smiled wide. The others automatically knew where she'd learned it from.

Jonouchi sighed. "Fine, whatever. I s'pose we'll just have to back you up if he decides to do somethin' about it."

"Whatever. You're throwing yourselves into the fire," she replied.

Anzu sat down on the edge of the stretcher. "Sandra, we know what we're doing. But we're doing it because that's what friends do for each other."

"Oh...you're one of _those_ people, aren't you?" Sandra's face twisted again, in the same manner as when she saw the lesson being written in Japanese.

Anzu happened to pull out her cellphone when she saw an unread message appear on the screen. "I just got a text from Bakura. He said he's not feeling well, and decided to go home to rest." A frown came onto her face.

"He wasn't looking too good when he bolted," Hiroto responded. "It's probably a good idea."

The doctor came in sooner than expected and felt Sandra was well enough to go home. He handed some papers to her brother. "Make sure she takes those painkillers only when necessary, otherwise she'll be out of it again." He checked her over one last time and gave her instructions before leaving the group to themselves.

"I guess we won't be seeing you at school on Monday, then," Yugi said to her, almost appearing sad as he stared at the floor.

"Are you kidding?" His head popped up. "You think these little scrapes are gonna keep me from doing anything? It's not like I'm made of glass!" Slowly, and with her brother's help, Sandra lifted herself off the stretcher. "Although, I'll have to get a new uniform. I doubt this one will satisfy those teachers."

"Make sure it's the right one this time," she heard Anzu say under her breath. She swore she also heard "delinquent" covered by a cough.


	3. Duel 3: Wrath of the Blue Eyes

The buzzing of the alarm clock: a teenager's worst enemy. It was the type of sound that made anyone who owned the cursed device, including Sandra, want to shove pointed wooden dowels in their ears, just so she wouldn't have to hear it ever again. But alas, Sandra enjoyed her music too much to do that, so the next best solution was to hit the snooze button. Her hand nearly smashed the poor clock. Sandra rolled onto her side and pulled the blanket up to her nose, wondering why she'd forgotten to switch it off. There was no need for her to be harassed by such a simple machine early on a Saturday morning. It wasn't like there was anything important for her to do. Sandra stared up at the ceiling with half lidded eyes. She just needed to stay still for long enough to fall back to sleep. But instead of shuteye came throbbing in her face and limbs. "Come on," she groaned, "just a few more hours." Why wasn't the medication working when she needed it to most? Sandra dragged herself over to the mirror to examine her wounds. She lifted up the right leg of her pajama pants and winced a little as she poked the stitched gash, repeating the ritual on her elbow. It was the most noticeable on her chin, though, where she'd sustained the most damage. She didn't think the pain from her accident would be this bad, but then again, she'd never been hit by a car before. She'd be feeling this for a week, at the least. And to make matters worse, she'd found out that it was Kaiba's limo. He'd definitely planned this. Then again, it could've been a complete accident, nothing to hold against him. Yugi and his friends HAD to over-exaggerating. Sandra shoved that all in the closet, though. She was just glad that her skateboard was still intact.

Now that she was wide awake, Sandra needed something to keep the urge to gouge her eyes out from boredom out of her list of options. There had to be SOMETHING interesting to do in Domino City. But what? She barely knew her way around the city; hell, the Canadian girl was lucky that she'd memorized the directions from her apartment to the high school. She didn't see any other people skateboarding on the streets, so there went the idea of stalking someone. Then she remembered how that green eyed guy had managed to milk her number out of her before she left the hospital. "It'd be convenient for you," he'd explained to her. "You need a translator, so you need a way to contact me." At least he could be a bit more useful.

"What was that guy's name again?" she asked herself. "Uhh...it started with an 'R'...I think..." She found the paper with his name and number laying on her nightstand, and picked it up. "Oh, Ryuji. THAT'S his name. Huh. Weird name. Then again, he IS a Jap." Sandra stared at the ripped paper, and her expression began to morph into one of disgust. "Am I really about to call this horn dog to find out where the closest skate park is?" After staring at the paper for a few more seconds, she sighed and picked up her cellphone, muttering a, "Yes, I am," and began dialing his number. She lifted the phone to her ear and listened to the dial tone for a while, until she heard Ryuji grumbling on the other end of the line.

"Mmm...hello?"

"Rise and shine, dude," Sandra sarcastically replied. "I need directions. Where's the nearest skate park?"

She heard some shifting and grunting; she'd probably just woken him up. "...Sandra?" he finally asked. "It's eight in the morning. That's pretty early for a phone call. Is something wrong?"

"I just asked you. Where's the nearest skate park?"

More grunting sounds flowed into her ears, followed by a yawn. "Look, I can pick you up later and take you there myself. We can get some lunch on the way there, if you want. Just give me your address." Silence loomed over the phone line for a moment.

"Uhh...if I'm correct, those aren't directions." She could practically hear him rolling his eyes, but she knew she'd get her way. He gave her the directions to a skate park a mile away from their school and she thanked him, hanging up when he was in the middle of another attempt to ask her out. "Well that took longer than I thought. Now..." Sandra tossed the paper and her phone back onto her nightstand and flopped backwards onto her bed. "I REALLY need to get some more sleep." She pulled the blankets back over her body and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to overtake her. It took a while, but she finally managed to fall back to sleep. Her relief, however, only lasted for two hours, and she was yet again woken up by a loud noise. This time, it was a little boy's voice. She glanced at her alarm clock and saw it was only ten in the morning. "Oh, for the love of crap..." Sandra reluctantly rolled out of bed and pulled open her door, staring down at the young ginger boy standing in front of her. "What the hell are you doing?"

The boy just stared up at her with a smile plastered on his face. "Come on, Sanj!" he yelled again. "Mom's making pancakes! You're gonna miss breakfast!"

Sandra hit her hand to her face. Of course her younger brother would wake her up for something as minute as pancakes. "Jason, I was sleeping! You know I don't like to be woken up before twelve on Saturdays." Her brother just stared at her, tilting his head slightly to the left and turning the puppy eyes on her. "Come on, man. Don't do that." He pouted his lip, looking as if he was seconds away from bawling. Sandra groaned, rubbing the back of her head, and sighed. Jason's expression quickly changed back to happy and he grabbed Sandra's hand, dragging her down to the kitchen. She knew she was going to regret it.

Giving in to her nine year old freckle-stricken brother was at the bottom of the list of things that annoyed Sandra that morning. Sure, the smell and taste of the pancake breakfast made her feel a bit better. But then Jack decided to greet his little sister by saying, "Good morning, roadkill. Did you have trouble getting off the side of the road this morning?" and he broke out in laughter. That, in turn, caused her mother to begin nagging her about how she should've been watching the road, and how she's momma's only little girl, and that nothing could ever replace her in the family. She lost track of what her mother was saying for a little bit, until she heard the irritating snapping of her mother's fingers right beside her ear.

"I'm glad I have your attention now." She cupped her hands around Sandra's cheeks so their eyes met. "Sweetheart, all I'm asking is for you to be careful. You're the only daughter I'll ever have. I've already lost the only person I can put in an adorable pink dress with bows in her hair and talk about girly things to..." A few tears welled in the corners of her eyes, and Sandra rolled her own.

"Ma, come on... Don't you look at me like that, too. I already got enough of that from Jason." She just dealt with it until breakfast ended, and then she was free to get ready to head to the skate park. Her mother tried to persuade her that it was too soon after her accident to go skating, but as expected, Sandra refused to listen.

As she finished dressing and was about to step out, her mother stopped her. "Honey, you forgot to put on your necklace." Oh..._THAT_. Her mother was referring to the gold locket with the weird eye on the front of it. Sandra groaned. "You promised me you'd wear it every day." Yes, and she was starting to regret it, but promising to wear the strange gold locket that was found three years prior by her mother in a large pile of sand every day was the only way to get her to not cry over the fact that she didn't have a girly girl for a daughter. And every day, she made sure that her precious little girl would abide by her promise, not letting her leave the house until she put the chain around her neck. So Sandra reluctantly ran back up to her room and kept her promise to Mommy. She quickly ran downstairs for the third time that morning and out the door, tossing her skateboard onto the ground and hopping onto it. She flew down the streets that led to her high school, making sure to actually obey the traffic laws for once so there wouldn't be a repeat of the previous day's events. Surprisingly, the directions Ryuji gave her were easy to follow. She only had to follow numbers so there was no language barrier. She blasted her music and pushed off of the ground to make herself move faster as the skatepark came into view. It was only a few blocks away. She just had to get through a few more lights, and she'd be in the clear.

At the entrance for the skate park, Ryuji, Yugi and Hiroto were leaning against the gate, waiting for Sandra to arrive. They had no idea when she was supposed to get there, or if she ever remembered the directions she'd been given. "I'm telling you guys," Hiroto repeated, "she's gonna get lost trying to find this place."

"I highly doubt that," Yugi replied. "Didn't you hear how many times she was asking if her skateboard was alright? She's practically married to it." Ryuji choked a bit when he heard that, and Hiroto laughed a little. That earned the brunette a light slap to the back of his head.

"What? He speaks the truth." Hiroto happened to glance over to the road when his eyes narrowed to a squint, then quickly widened. "Hey, I think I see her. She's down there!" He pointed to a figure moving closer to him and wearing a bright red helmet, which they recognized as hers right away. Yugi started waving in her direction to try and gain her attention, but of course, she was too busy adjusting her headphones and blowing a gum bubble large enough to obstruct her view of the trio waiting for her.

Then Ryuji saw something that made him raise an eyebrow. A small black car pulled up and rolled beside Sandra, stopping with her when the light changed. Okay, nothing out of the ordinary. But then the back door nearest to Sandra opened, and two men in suits and sunglasses stepped out. "Huh. Looks like some kind of Secret Service guys-" Ryuji stopped mid-sentence when he saw one of the men pull out a cattle prod and zap her with it from behind. Sandra jumped and seemed to lose consciousness as the other man threw what looked like a burlap sack over her head. The two men quickly lifted Sandra by her limbs and pulled her into the car, and immediately drove off. "Holy shit!" he yelled. "Did you guys just see that?" Both Hiroto and Yugi's jaws were on the ground.

"Oh my god!" Yugi yelled. Was Sandra just kidnapped right in front of them? "We've got to go after them!" The guys nodded and all three ran for Ryuji's car. For the second time that week, they were tailing a car that carried Sandra inside of it – the only difference was this time, they had no idea where the car was heading, and they never caught up to it. As they pulled to a halt, Ryuji smacked his hand against the wheel.

"Dammit! There's got to be another way to find her."

"Yeah, but how?"

* * *

><p>Sandra hadn't been knocked out when she felt the cattle prod strike the middle of her back, but it kept her stunned long enough to allow whoever these men clad in suits and aviators were to throw that thick sack over her head, bind her hands and feet with what felt like rope secured with duct tape, throw her into what she believed to be the car that had pulled up next to her and drive off somewhere. And if that didn't annoy her completely, she was stuck breathing in the scent of the sack – which smelled a lot like a mix of wet dog, feet and old marijuana – until her head was uncovered. But for all she knew, she could've suffocated by the time that happened. There was really no point in her screaming. It wasn't like anyone would hear her. But the fact that someone hoisted her over their shoulder as if she was an old sweaty gym bag made her thrash around. The only kind of response she got was a deliberate nudge to her stomach with her handler's shoulder and a, "Shut up and stay still," slightly muffled by the sack.<p>

The complaining of her handler, along with the constant nudging to her stomach, finally ceased when she heard a snapping sound. She felt the goons toss her into what she believed to be a chair and untie her hands and feet. "Finally," she groaned loudly. Sandra managed to blindly sucker punch whoever happened to be standing in front of her before her hands were once again restrained, this time by being handcuffed on the arms of the chair. "Hey, get this fucking bag off of my head! It stinks like pot in here!" Luckily for her, the burlap sack was pulled off of her head, allowing her to take in a fresh breath of air. "Seriously, man. If you're gonna kidnap someone, use something that smells better!" Her complaining ceased when she looked forward and saw someone standing in front of her, his back facing her. "Oh, great, another goon in a monkey suit."

Sandra tilted her head to the right as the man folded his hands behind his back. "MasterFL99, right? Unbeknownst to you, you've stirred up quite a shit storm. If there's one thing I hate, it's someone pissing in my coffee. And do you know what you're doing?" He spun around and leaned down slightly, meeting her gaze. "You're pissing in my coffee."

Sandra narrowed her gaze and leaned as close as her handcuffs would allow her to. "Hmm...you look familiar somehow..." Dark blue eyes colder than any kind of ice, a brown crop of mullet sitting atop his head, and that voice... "Oh...Oh! Now I know who you are!" She grinned at him and continued, "I see you're all better from our little accident yesterday. Just so you know, I forgive you for almost killing me. Now what's up, ass wipe? You obviously want my attention."

Kaiba tightened his fists behind his back. "For the sake of me not shooting you in the face," he started, "I'll make this simple for you." He pointed to the laptop on his desk, which had her video paused and on full screen. "This? This needs to be gone. And you're going to be the one to get rid of it."

"What, you mean my masterpiece?" Sandra blew a gum bubble and popped it a few centimeters from the tip of his nose. "Do you know why I'm called MasterFL99 online? Because I'm the MASTER. It's not going anywhere." Without saying a word, Kaiba reached into his drawer and pulled out a set of spiked brass knuckles, setting them on top of the desk.

"Are we gonna have a problem here?"

Sandra looked closely at the brass knuckles sitting on top of the desk. They actually looked intimidating...except for the fact that the actual knuckles were made up of four miniature Blue Eyes White Dragon heads. As hard as she tried to resist, Sandra ended up laughing. "Oh my god, are you SERIOUS? How did I NOT expect that to be themed around your jizz dragons?"

"Okay," Kaiba said, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, "so we ARE going to have a problem, apparently. Look, kill that video, or – to put it bluntly – I'm personally going to fuck you up. I don't mean a little scrape, I'm talking about a man-sized-beat-the-mouthy-bitch-out-of-your-skull ass kicking."

"Oh, you mean worse than this?" Sandra lifted up her chin, showing off the stitches she'd earned from personally meeting the grill of his limousine.

Just as things were heating up, a secretary opened the door and walked into the office. She opened her mouth to speak, but froze when she caught sight of the scenario taking place in front of her. "...Is this a bad time, sir?"

"...That depends on what you've got to say to me," her boss said to her as he turned his attention to the large window behind him. The secretary's knees began to buckle. She gulped nervously and slowly made her way closer to Kaiba.

"Uhh... Well...you see, yesterday... The value of our stocks...MAY have...dropped a bit..."

The secretary immediately lifted her arms to shield herself from her CEO's screaming, but it never came. Instead, he reached over to her and pat her shoulder. "That's alright. Shit happens, right? Yes..." Suddenly, Kaiba gripped the woman by her shoulders hard. "Now watch this shit happen." With one swift push, the secretary flew through the glass and out the window.

Sandra's jaw dropped. "Holy fuck!"

All Kaiba did was turn and press a button on his intercom. "Elena, get someone to fix this window. Suzy just retired."

"Okay, forget what I said in my video. THIS-" Sandra motioned over to the window with her chin- "is why no woman will sleep with you!"

Kaiba returned his attention back to Sandra. "I'm not going to say this again. Take down the fu-" He stopped short when he heard Suzy's body land on a car and sighed. "Right, just take down the video."

"You're concerned about me taking down that video when you just fucking KILLED someone? Are you out of your fucking mind?"

The CEO unscrewed the flask he'd pulled out from his blazer pocket and took a long sip of its contents. "What do you want me to say? No?" He sighed again. "Look, she was stupid. Stupid people die. Sandra Evans...don't be stupid."

"You... I... She..." Sandra was at a loss for words. "What the fuck, man?" The shock from what happened caused her to nearly swallow her gum, and she coughed until it came back up.

"So? You'll be taking down that video, right? Because that pre-mentioned ass kicking is still on the table."

Sandra stared at him, still in a bit of shock over what she just saw. "...So if I take it down...I get to live. And if I DON'T take it down..."

Kaiba shrugged. "Yeah, that's pretty much the situation. And I'm aware of all the reposts there are. It's the internet, after all. You're responsible for those, too."

"W-what? How do you expect me to take care of those? The internet's like a rat spreading the Black Plague!"

He gave her a nonchalant look. "Then I suggest you put the silicone to the boobs and get it done."

Sandra bit her bottom lip. Even with the threats, it was still a pretty difficult choice. "...Fine, ass wipe. You win this round. But you can't hold me accountable when people start posting explicit drawings of you having four-ways with your jizz dragons on your Facebook fan page."

"Be clear," Kaiba told her, crossing his arms. "I can hold you accountable for whatever the hell I think you're responsible for." He cleared his throat. "You know what? You're messing with my business, so now I'm going to mess with yours. I know you duel. I checked your records. So you'll be dueling me in front of the whole world, and they can watch me blow your ass to bits."

"Is that a challenge, Dragon Boy?" She scoffed and shook her head at him, grinning. "Because I can neuter you and your dragons in an OTK."

Kaiba shook his head at her. "Damn, I'm going to enjoy this. Be here tomorrow." He pressed a button on the intercom. "Elena, get the unpleasant girl that's about to pass you a Duel Disk, would you?"

"Alright, I'll be here," Sandra told him. Her gaze moved up to the ceiling. "...As soon as I figure out how to get here from my house."

"Elena will give you the directions. Now..." Kaiba cleared his throat again. "Get the fuck out of my sight."

Sandra sarcastically replied, "Gee, that sounds like a wonderful idea, Mr. CEO! But last I checked, my hands were restrained on the arms of this chair. So would you be a dear and set this little birdie free?" She leaned her head toward him again and bat her eyes, quickly changing into a pout. Kaiba groaned and walked behind the chair, unlocking her handcuffs.

"Go. Just get out." Sandra headed for the door, but spun around once she was in the doorway and faced him once more.

"Oh, you might want to bring a mop and bucket with you tomorrow. You're gonna need them so you can mop up all your tears when we learn who REALLY 'rides the dragons'." She continued onward down the hall, flipping him the bird as she left. He growled and picked up his office phone receiver, throwing it out the door.

When Sandra got to the secretary's desk, she was met with a woman nervously typing on a computer. She cleared her throat to get the woman's attention. "Oh," she started, "are you the girl here to pick up a Duel Disk?"

"I don't see anyone else here. Do you?"

"Right," she replied, and reached behind her. Elena picked up a large box and laid it on the counter near her. "The instructions are inside and are written in six languages, so you should be able to understand just fine." She turned away for a moment and came back with a paper. "These are the directions to return here. If you need to be picked up, call the number on the bottom and a limo will be sent to your residence-"

"Wait." Sandra held up a hand. "He knows where I live? Shit!" She smacked her hand against the box and sighed. "Oh, well. Guess there's nothing I can do about that." Sandra picked up the box. "I'll be needing another one of these in red. Gotta match my other outfits, you know." Elena hummed, annoyed, and Sandra waved goodbye to her. "Tell the ass wipe I said thanks for the free stuff."

With the help of some sentries, Sandra found her way out of the building. She exited, and after walking down the stairs, turned and looked at the building. It was much more massive than she imagined. "At least the antenna doesn't have a Blue Eyes climbing it." As she started down the block, she noticed two men – similar in appearance to the ones who'd kidnapped her – lugging a large black bag into the back of another mysterious dark-colored car. _'Probably Suzy heading to her retirement party.'_ At the end of the block, she paused and stared at the paper with the directions. "Hold on... How do I get back home?"

* * *

><p>"Well, we tried," Yugi said to his friends. They'd been driving around for two hours, looking around for Sandra and the car that her kidnappers used, without any luck. Somehow, the perpatrators had evaded them. "I really hope she's alright." They were about to give up hope when Ryuji suddenly stopped short. "Whoa! A little warning next time, please?"<p>

"You're alright!" Ryuji yelled, totally ignoring Yugi. He and Hiroto looked in front of the car to see Sandra stepping off of her skateboard and Ryuji running to her. "My god, what happened? We saw some guys drag you into a dark car and jus drive off."

Sandra waved off his worry, and pushed his creeping hand away. "Relax. It was just Kaiba. He had some of his goons kidnap me so he could threaten me about the video. We're settling it with a duel tomorrow in the stadium behind his building. You know, I forgot he played the game."

"Whoa whoa, slow down there," Hiroto intervened. "Start from the beginning. You know how to duel?"

"Uhh, yeah!" Sandra huffed. "Look, I can explain everything to you. But I need a ride to my house first. I'm...lost." She shrugged her shoulders.

Ryuji took the skateboard from the ground and grabbed her hand. "Of course I'll give you a lift!" he immediately replied, and pulled her into his car. Hiroto reluctantly moved to the back seat upon Ryuji's request. Sandra sat beside him and they sped off, with her providing the directions and filling them in on the situation.


	4. Duel 4: The Spanking

**Just a quick note for everyone: Sandra's deck is based directly off the one created by my close friend. Some (if not most or all) of the cards listed in the story are from a future card generation; however, they've been brought into this generation for fan purposes. Just letting you all know before someone freaks about it.**

* * *

><p>Yugi made calls to the rest of his friends as soon as he returned home, telling each of them about the next day's surprise event. "Yeah, that's what I said," he told Jonouchi over the phone. "But it's her choice. It's not like we can stop it from happening."<p>

"We could if we tried," Jonouchi argued from the other end of the line.

"It's not that easy, though. Kaiba's the one who initiated it. And he's broadcasting it worldwide. That's not something that can be cancelled so easily."

He heard Jonouchi groan. "Whatever. Let's just hope she knows who she's facing."

Their conversation ended shortly afterward. He was really worried about the impending duel. She hadn't disclosed much information on the event. The only thing she seemed willing to tell them was how excited she was for it. Tapping his fingers on his nightstand, Yugi got the sudden urge to surf the internet. Maybe finding some information on Sandra's dueling history would calm his nerves. He skipped over to his desk and logged on. Sensing his anxiety, the spirit of the puzzle materialized next to him. _**"I haven't seen you this worried since the Battle City finals,"**_ he said to his scion.

"This isn't like Battle City, Pharaoh. Kaiba isn't dueling for a championship this time." Yugi scrolled down a page and skimmed its contents. He moved onto the next when he found nothing. "I just want to see if she's capable of facing him."

Yami remained silent, watching Yugi become frustrated as no answers came up. Sandra had no visible dueling history in Canada: no regionals, no nationals. Nothing. Perhaps her case was the same as his own when he first entered Duelist Kingdom: a teenager with no record that turned out to defeat the very creator of the game and win. _**"If you ask me, it appears she wanted this. Her tone in the recording certainly said enough." **_He crossed his arms. _**"You know there's nothing we can do but support her from the sidelines."**_

"I guess..." The young duelist sighed. "I hope she can handle his attacks." He closed his laptop.

* * *

><p>The next day was buzzing with anticipation. Kaiba Corp had to double their security at the stadium in Kaiba Land. The seats filled quicker than anyone thought possible. Media swarmed the entire perimeter, and had to be guided in one at a time. Cameras were positioned around the entire platform the duelists would be occupying. And for those who couldn't get seats in time, monitors all around the amusement park were tuned to the live broadcast so they could watch.<p>

In a room near the duelists' entrance, Kaiba slid on his trademark sleeveless white coat. This battle would reinstate his reputation as a global superpower, and it was quickly approaching. The moment both he and Sandra went out in front of all those people, he'd grasp her and silence her insolent mouth once and for all. The best part of the entire spectacle, he believed, would be the exact moment her life points fell to zero. He could see it now: the image of Sandra falling to her knees, broken and beaten, begging for forgiveness for her childish actions, while he just towered over her and laughed. Just the thought of it brought a small smile to his face. "Soon the entire world will see Evans for the cowardly rat she is." Kaiba looked toward the mirror and studied his reflection. From the moment she'd left his office, and all through the previous night, he'd spent every second rounding up all the biggest media names. Free seats were provided for all who showed up early. He made it worth their while, announcing it as a duel nobody would want to miss. As he slipped his duel disk around his wrist, he saw the reflection of his younger brother entering the room. "Is everything ready, Mokuba?"

"All the camera crews are set up and online," Mokuba replied, reading over a clipboard. "The reporters are all waiting for your first comments, and the last of the spectators have been seated." He turned over one of his papers. "According to one of the sentries, Yugi and his friends are among those in the stadium. They're near the south corridor."

"Of course those freaks showed up. As long as Evans gets here, I don't care who watches," Kaiba commented, rolling his eyes.

Mokuba took a few steps into the room. "Are you sure she'll show, Seto? You know most people decide to bail when you challenge them."

"I highly doubt she'd skip out," the elder brother answered. "Based on the information you gathered for me, I found out that Sandra Evans loves to be challenged, and won't back down when presented with one. She proved it when I interrogated her yesterday. That, and her mouth, are her greatest weaknesses." His smirk returned. "She'll tremble once she's face to face with all three of my Blue Eyes."

Their gazes moved to the clock on the wall. Ten to two. "Almost time for the duel to start. Ready to show her who's boss?" Kaiba nodded and Mokuba ran ahead of him, leaving the room. The CEO placed his deck into its slot on the duel disk, and after looking himself over one last time, left the room to follow his brother. The hallway felt long. His pace quickened. Soon he was at the other end, and the light from the clear afternoon sky fell on him. As he stepped out into the open, the crowd began to cheer and chant his name. Every camera stayed focused on the CEO. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yugi and his friends seated, just where Mokuba had said, and huffed. Today they'd see him as the champion he truly was as he defeated his opponent.

A large group of reporters immediately ran toward him, holding out their microphones to capture Kaiba's voice. Men in suits and sunglasses quickly forced their way into the crowd and surrounded him, providing space between the reporters and their boss. One reporter and her cameraman managed to get closer than all the others. She turned to face him and inched closer to Kaiba, and received a signal from her cameraman. "And what a beautiful day it is today, here in Domino City. This is Hana Suzuki, bringing you live to Kaiba Land's main arena, where the biggest match since the Battle City finals are about to go underway. I'm here with world famous dueling champion and Kaiba Corporation CEO, Seto Kaiba." She moved the metal device closer to him. "Mr. Kaiba, would you be kind enough to let our viewers know what brought you to announce a surprise duel on such short notice? Everyone's dying to know."

All the reporters began writing as he spoke. "This duel is strictly about that defamatory video my opponent released on the internet two days ago. She must learn that while free speech is permitted, it's not a right that can be tossed around and used so recklessly. I'm not above teaching a novice to respect their betters, especially when their bark is worse than their bite."

The reporter nodded. "By the sounds of the spectators, they can't wait for the show to start. Everyone's expecting a quick victory in your favor. What sort of strategy do you have planned for this 'MasterFL99'?" Kaiba crossed his arms.

"I don't need a strategy for a beginner. Give me five rounds, and her life points are as good as gone." The stadium roared louder. Kaiba turned away from the reporters, who yelled questions they wanted him to answer before being sent back to their designated areas. He ignored their inquiries and made his way over to Roland. "Is there any word on Evans' arrival yet?" he asked.

"Not yet, sir," he replied. "Those posted around the stadium and at Kaiba Land's entrances haven't seen her. And it's already a quarter after-" His words ceased as he brought a hand to the receiver in his ear. "Yes... Are you sure? Then direct her here right away!" Roland's attention returned to his boss. "Good news, sir. Miss Evans has just entered the amusement park, and is being directed to the stadium as we speak."

Within minutes, the sentries were standing at attention at both duelists' entry gates. The doors Kaiba came in through were opened again. Kaiba's eyes narrowed. Sandra rolled into the arena area on her skateboard, weaving past the reporters that chased after her. She made a sharp turn and skidded to a stop in front of Kaiba. A yellow bubble inflated at her lips and popped, and she pulled the strands back into her mouth to chew them again. Their stares lingered on each other. "Afternoon," she greeted him between chomps on her gum. "I see you decided to wear that... 'Thing' again." She pointed to his coat. Her eyes quickly shifted to the rest of his attire, finding nothing but Kaiba Corp. logos and belts strapped around his extremities. It almost made her want to laugh. "Huh. First that Yugi kid, now you..." She shrugged her shoulders. "What is it with teenage Japs? Are you all born with some bondage fetish in your DNA?"

Kaiba groaned. "If you hope dissing my clothes is going to leave me in a distracted fit of rage, you may want to reconsider your plan." He found his own eyes wandering, looking her up and down. Her own outfit was pretty ordinary: jeans torn at the knees, red-and-gray skating sneakers, a gray wristband slipped on her right arm, and a black-and-white tank top, with a low neckline and cut-out shoulders. His eyes rolled. "And what of your outfit? Are you planning on a wardrobe malfunction?"

"Please. You ARE a wardrobe malfunction. Besides, I look hot." Sandra swept her hair with her hand, blowing and popping another gum bubble. She popped it loud, loud enough to make him twitch as her teacher did.

"Insults will get you nowhere, Evans. You already know how to prove yourself, but we both know that won't be happening." Both he and Sandra were oblivious of the reporters now surrounding them, holding their cameras and microphones as close as possible without disturbing the conversation.

"Oh? Why not?"

"Because I'm gonna spank you hard, something your parents obviously never learned to do."

Sandra put a hand to her mouth and uttered a fake gasp. "Seto Kaiba! Why am I not surprised to hear you turning this into a sexual thrill?" After a few more chews, she spit her used gum into her hand and tossed it into a nearby trash can, quickly replacing it with a fresh stick. "I've got a suggestion. Put your deck where your mouth is and we'll see who gets the spanking today." Reaching into a case looped on her belt, she pulled out her deck and slid it into its slot.

The reporters were cleared again and the crowd knew it was finally time. Kaiba gestured his hand to the stage. "Choose your graveyard," he said to her. Sandra huffed and made her way to the opposite side of the arena, unaware of the presence of Yugi's posse. The duelists were fitted with small microphones as they walked onto the stage. Kaiba pressed the main release button on his duel disk and it turned on, opening and sending out its hologram projectors. He quickly noticed his opponent examining her own with squinted eyes. "You didn't read the instructions, did you?"

Sandra shrugged her shoulders. "I fell asleep What can I say?" Grumbling, Kaiba pinched between his eyebrows and pointed to the fairly noticeable release button on the device. "Oh. I knew that." She easily found it and pressed it, watching the projectors fly out and the disk reassemble itself. She whistled, obviously fascinated by it. "Now that everything's set in place, what do you say we get this show on the road?" The spectators began cheering again as the duelists drew their first hand, and the projectors displayed each one's life points.

"I'll start things off," Kaiba told her. "And I'll do so with my Kaiser Sea Horse in attack mode." He placed the card onto the middle open slot and its hologram appeared. He slid another into one of the back slots. "I'll also set this card face-down for the time being. Make your move, Evans."

Sandra tilted her head. "Really? Your first move is overgrown sushi?" she asked, shaking her head in disappointment. "Whatever. I'll make this ass-whooping short." She drew her card and studied her hand. "First off, I'm getting rid of your little fail-safe back there, with this." She turned around one of the cards in her hand, a magic card. "MST, bitch." A typhoon materialized from the ground and lunged toward Kaiba, shredding his face-down and destroying it. He scowled at her. "And now I'll play this card. Ever hear of Future Visions?" Immediately following the card's activation, she laid a third down in the main zone. "Say hello to Fortune Lady Light. Quickly, now, before she disappears." The monster, a fragile-looking creature with large eyes, was bound by a wind vortex and vanished from the field. "Don't worry, though. She'll only be gone a turn."

Kaiba's scowl became a smirk, and he chuckled to himself. "So you summoned a monster only to get rid of it. Is that all?"

"Not even close. You see, Light's got a pretty nice effect." She stopped for a second, and saw his confusion. "When Light's removed from play by a card effect, I can special summon another Fortune Lady from my deck. Allow me to introduce you to her sister, Fortune Lady Dark." Sandra gestured her free hand to the empty field, where a dark spiral spun and emitted a low whining. A figure flew out from it, a much more ominous, violet version of the previous creature. It twirled its weapon in its fingers.

In the stands, Jonouchi's brow furrowed. "Fortune Ladies? I've never heard of those kinds of cards." He glanced at Yugi, waiting for information.

"They're newer cards," he replied. "They were originally released as a promotion for Duel Monsters. I heard the release had taken place in Canada about a year ago." He focused on the monster that had just appeared on Sandra's side of the field. "I've seen them in the stock room in Grandpa's shop, but this is the first time I've seen them in action."

Their attention went back to the duel, where Sandra continued her turn. "Now I'll activate Fortune's Future, which brings Light back into my graveyard and in play. And since Dark's on the field, I think I'll attach a little something called One Shot Wand to her. It increases her attack by 800 points." She laid down a fourth magic card. "Let's give the crowd what they came here for, Dark. Demolish his Kaiser Sea Horse. Dismal Curse his ass!" Within a second of her command, the creature lunged at Kaiba's soldier and sent out a dark wave of energy. It hit his monster and destroyed it. The hologram displaying his life points dropped from 4000 to 2900 and he sneered. "I'll let you in on a little secret, dragon boy. All the Fortune Ladies have the same general effect: their attack and defense are equal to a set amount multiplied by their level. In Dark's case, her initial attack was 2000. After each turn, their levels increase by one. And you know what that means." Her monster returned to its original space on the field. "Next, I'll use Dark's effect to bring my Fortune Lady Light back onto the field. And she'll be attacking you next." The glowing monster, a polar opposite to the one that stood beside her, repeated the lunge and swung its weapon at Kaiba. His life points decreased further, to 2700. "Because Dark attacked, I'll get rid of her little power-up. And doing so means I get to draw a card." She placed the magic card into the graveyard slot and drew a new one. "I'll set this face-down back. That'll end my turn." The space behind Dark lit up and blinked.

The crowd had become exhilarated. Nobody expected the girl from the internet to take the lead, let alone so quickly. Many of those watching were in awe, 'ooh'ing and 'aah'ing throughout Sandra's turn. Even Yugi's group, who thought they'd seen every kind of rapid control seizing in dueling, were taken aback. She'd pulled moves none of them had witnessed before, including Kaiba. His fist was shaking again, albeit lacking the anticipation he'd felt just a few minutes before. "I'll admit," he started, "that was quite an impressive move for someone I've never seen duel before. But that was pure luck. I won't let you damage me again." Kaiba drew his card. "I'll begin by setting this in defense mode. And now, I'll activate the magic card, Summoner's Art. With this, I'm allowed to add a normal level five or higher monster from my deck to my hand. I choose my Blue Eyes White Dragon. My turn ends with that." The card slid out from his deck and he grabbed it.

"Good, so now I can go." Sandra drew a new card. "Since it's my turn again, my Fortune Ladies each gain a level and more power." The hologram displays for their levels, attack and defense points increased in value. "First I'll play Foolish Burial. It'll send a monster from my deck to my graveyard. That'll be my Fortune Lady Water." The card was moved to the graveyard slot as she gestured her hand in Kaiba's direction. "Now it's time I got rid of your defense. Take it out, Dark." Her monster jumped forward and attacked the glowing square in front of her. The assaulted creature appeared for a brief second and its hologram exploded into pieces.

The smug grin returned to his face. "You've just triggered Giant Germ's ability. Once it's destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, you automatically take 500 points of damage." He watched as her life points dropped to 3500. "I can also special summon as many new Giant Germs in attack mode as I please. And I'll bring out two." Two exact copies of his slain creature were brought onto the field. "Not looking so good out there, Evans."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just let me finish my turn." Several in the crowd whistled, finding her sarcasm amusing. "Now where was I? Ah, yes. I was just about to use Dark's effect to bring Water back to the field. Welcome back, Water." The blue Fortune Lady counterpart rose from the space next to Dark, and the monsters acknowledged each other's presence. "And now I can use her effect. When she's special summoned when I have a different Fortune Lady on the field, I can draw two cards." She drew two new cards from her deck and smirked. "Let's see your Pot of Greed do that. Your turn."

"Crushing you is going to feel so good," he told her, drawing a new card. "I play the magic card, Ancient Rules. This lets me special summon a level 5 or higher normal monster from my hand." Sandra rolled her eyes. She already knew which one he'd chosen. "Blue Eyes, come forth!" A white light shot out from the empty space between his two Giant Germs. Everyone saw the dragon materialize, and some shielded their eyes from the sunlight that bounced off its scales. It let out a blaring roar, one that brought the crowd to cheer. They knew, with his signature card now out, that Kaiba was going to win. "I should thank you for reducing my life points. Since they're lower than yours, I can play Megamorph, and attach it to my dragon. Now its attack will be doubled." The display for the Blue Eyes' strength doubled to 6000. Kaiba began to laugh. "You had a good run, Evans, but not good enough. You're through. Blue Eyes, blast her Fortune Lady Light off the field! White Lightning!" The dragon quickly charged a mass of electricity in front of its mouth, and leaned its head back. Kaiba broke out in a laugh.

Sandra's eyes widened. "Oh, no! Your almighty Blue Eyes is going to wipe out my life points! What ever will I do to save myself?" She pouted for a second, and changed it into a smile. "Wait! I know! I'll do this!" Hitting a button near the rear card slots, she revealed the face-down card she had set. "Activate Magical Dimension!" His laughter stopped when he heard her. "In case you don't know what this does, it tributes one spellcaster to special summon another. And guess who's getting tributed?" A large coffin-like structure surfaced from behind Light. The lid opened and it swallowed the creature, closing and chaining itself. The Blue Eyes' attack bounced off the coffin, nullifying its strike. "I think I'll bring out another fresh face. Come on out, Fortune Lady Earth." The coffin opened again and another of the Ladies, a rust-colored version, stepped out. "Another thing, ass wipe. Light's effect triggers again. I'd like to bring out a second new one." The fifth version of the monster, this time in dark pink, joined her sisters on the field. "Meet Fortune Lady Fire. I think her effect is my favorite out of all the Ladies. Since she was special summoned because of another Fortune Lady's effect, I can destroy one face-up monster on my opponent's side of the field. And I'm picking your overpowered lizard." Sandra snapped her fingers, and Fortune Lady Fire sprang forward. "Oh, and the best part? She can inflict damage equal to the destroyed monster's attack." His eyes widened. "Finish him, Fire, with your Burnout Inferno!" With a swing of its weapon, Fire sent a wave of fire headed toward the dragon. Kaiba could only watch as the flames enveloped his Blue Eyes, bringing it to explode.

Everything had fallen silent. Nobody made a sound. Then, as they saw Kaiba's life points hit zero, the ovation began. The reporters rushed onto the stage and the projectors shut down, the holograms vanishing. Yugi and his friend stood with the rest of the crowd and screamed for joy. They couldn't believe what they'd just seen. "That was amazing!" Ryuji yelled.

"I can't believe I doubted her!" Hiroto also said.

"You an' me both," Jonouchi added.

Soon Sandra was surrounded by reporters. She turned off her duel disk and retuned all her cards to the box on her belt. She looked up at one of the large display screens, which was showing a replay of her final move. She couldn't help smiling. Cameras and microphones were shoved near her face, and questions were thrown her way. "Where are you from?"

"Who are you? What's your name?"

"Where did you learn to duel like that?"

"Why haven't we heard of you before? You certainly have the talent to be on the international circuit."

Sandra ignored their stares and started walking toward the stairs. "The name's Sandra Evans. I learned to duel because I was bored, and the idea of dueling professionally bored me, too. And that video's never coming down, no matter what Kaiba says." She noticed Yugi and his friends coming her way. They squeezed their way through the circle of reporters and met her in the middle.

"Awesome job!" Yugi said to her, not realizing the cameras focused on him. "That was one of the best duels I ever watched!"

The female reporter that had interviewed Kaiba managed to, once again, sneak next to her target, and held her microphone to Sandra's mouth. "Miss Evans!" she called out. "How did you meet Yugi Muto, the King of Games?"

"The king of what?"

* * *

><p>Once they'd had their fill of answers, the reporters left Sandra alone and focused on pestering Kaiba, who was fuming and pushing away from them. Sandra, Yugi and his friends left the stadium and started walking down the block. Anzu had suggested a small restaurant where they could grab a bite to eat. Sandra denied their offer at first, but her growling stomach accepted it for her. As they made it to the restaurant, Ryou began to feel sick again, and felt it was best for him to retire for the day, letting them know they should still celebrate Sandra's victory. Once inside, the group was led to a table and their orders were taken. Sandra tore off a small piece of the paper covering her straw and blew into it, sending the paper propelling into Anzu's hair. She, Hiroto and Jonouchi laughed as she groaned and removed the paper. "You're so immature," she commented.<p>

"What's that?" Sandra brought a hand to her ear. "I can't hear you over the sound of Kaiba crying." She imitated what she thought he'd be doing. "No, not my precious Blue Eyes! How could you? She was the love of my life!" Hiroto and Jonouchi laughed even louder, the first almost falling off his chair.

"Ssh!" Yugi shushed them. "We'll get in trouble if you're too loud." They waved their hands at him, telling him not to worry.

Ryuji slid his chair closer to Sandra's. "So you didn't know Yugi was the King of Games? Everyone knows that!" His hand inched even closer to hers. "...Is there anything you'd like to know about me? Maybe something personal?"

"No, I had no idea his name was that big," she replied, ignoring his second statement as she turned to the short teenager. "You don't look the type, honestly. And don't ask what 'the type' is, because I can't explain it." She reached past Ryuji's hand to pick up her soda. Sandra brought the straw to her lips and sucked in some of the fizzing liquid. As she set it down and looked at Jonouchi at the mention of her name, Yugi caught sight of the necklace around her neck, the one with the strange eye. It was both captivating and unsettling. He, too, knew there were only seven Millennium Items, and whatever the one around her neck appeared to be, wasn't one of them. So then what was it?


	5. Duel 5: Maybe I'm a Schizo

"You know," Sandra started as she bit into one of her fries, "you Japs ain't so bad. I heard a lot of things back in Canada that were...well, for lack of better words, pretty nasty."

"Oh yeah?" Hiroto asked. "Like what?"

Sandra tapped her finger on the tabletop. "Well, for one, someone told me that the tentacle rape thing is real, to an extent." Yugi nearly had a spit take with his soda. "He told me the high school boys would chop off the tentacles of octopi and squid, then shove 'em up a girl's nether regions when she bent down to pick up something." Jonouchi was having a difficult time keeping himself from laughing, and Anzu and Hiroto's faces were morbidly horrified. "Wait, that's not true, is it?"

Yugi's face brightened. "No, no way!" he immediately told her while frantically waving his hands. The memory of the first year he became friends with Hiroto and Jonouchi surfaced, when they attempted to look up Anzu's skirt. He immediately hid his face in his hands.

Ryuji plucked a fry from his plate and raised an eyebrow, trying hard to conceal the blush on his face. "Geez, what kind of school did you come from?" he asked. "What else did those people tell you?"

"There were a few others. One involved conventions breaking out during street fight. Another one was really stupid: that sometimes, the kids in Japan are kidnapped by the demons of the forest. Or some shit like that. The last one was about you guys having some sick obsession with leather and bondage. And although I doubt it's true for everyone..." she trailed off and stared at Yugi, who started blushing again. "But honestly, the tentacle one was the worst out of all of them."

"And I always thought Canada was the most peaceful, accepting and non-judgmental country in the world," Jonouchi commented as he sank his teeth into what was left of his burger.

Sandra's head perked up. "Nope, biggest lie to ever hit mankind. Sure, the country itself is great, but you don't hear everyone going 'eh' after all their sentences. We're not pigeons." She picked up her soda and sucked it up through the straw. The silence reminded Yugi of the pendant around her neck. It hung there, its single eye staring at him, leaving him with millions of questions and no answers.

"Say, Sandra," Yugi started, "where'd you get your necklace from?" Everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to the golden pendant. They, too, began to realize just what was around her neck, and their eyes widened.

Sandra set down her cup. "What, this old thing?" she asked, tapping the metal plates on its surface. "I dunno. My mom found it in some flea market when she was on a business trip in Egypt. It caught her eye and she demanded I wear it so I'd have some sense of girliness to me." She looked up at him. "Why do you ask?" Everyone looked back to their friend. They knew it was his call to bring up the whole Millennium Item speech since he bore one, and they silently awaited his decision.

"Nothing," he replied," it's just really nice. And...unique." The group averted their eyes, although the air was still slightly tense. "What do you say we get going? It's pretty late. Plus with that test tomorrow-"

"Aw, shit!" the Canadian cursed. "Don't remind me. I'm gonna flunk that thing! How am I supposed to take it if all the notes are in Japanese?" For once, the group saw the rare side of Sandra concerned with school.

Ryuji stood up. "I've got your back, Sandra. I have a copy of the notes you can borrow, and I can show you how to read it. But I'm sure the teacher will still let you write in English."

Anzu also stood and gathered her belongings. "How are you even living here without knowing any Japanese?"

"I took a crash course before I moved here over the summer," she replied, "but I still can't understand much of it. Can't even read the damned characters."

"Ooh, that's bad." Anzu began to feel bad for the new girl, although not enough to forgive her delinquent actions. _'Well she's lucky we know English.'_ "You're going to need some serious help. But if we help you, you have to pay attention. No falling asleep in class, got it?"

Sandra frowned. "Well I can't guarantee that-"

"Of course you can!" Jonouchi cut in. "If you pass out, one of us will be there to slap you awake. 'Cuz that's what friends do for each other." Sandra was beginning to find these guys weirder than normal. Then again, at least she'd get some free translation courses out of it.

With their meals paid for the group went their separate ways. Anzu, Jonouchi, Hiroto and Yugi decided to walk back to his house for the remainder of the evening. Though she wanted to turn down Ryuji's offer for a ride, Sandra realized she'd forgotten the way back to her house. "Don't sweat it," he told her as he opened the car door for her. Sandra sat down in the front seat, noting how desperate he was. He sat next to her and started driving down the road, having remembered her address. "So how much Japanese do you know?"

Her face twisted. "Aside from _**'kahn-ee-chi-wuh'**_ and '_**ah-ri-ga-toh**_'", she sounded out, "not much."

"One: don't worry about it. Two: you completely botched that pronunciation. It's _**'koh-nee-chi-wah'**_. But you got the other one right." He turned down one of the streets. "What about numbers?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I was pretty decent at math back home, so that was the easiest part." She raised her hand and started counting on her fingers. "_**Ichi, ni, san, yon, go, roku, shichi**_…uh…"

"_**Hachi**_."

"Right."

Ryuji shook his head and sighed. "**K****ono baka wo oshieru no ha muri da**," he commented.

"That counts as talking behind my back."

They arrived at her house shortly after. Ryuji parked the car and picked up the box with her duel disk, following Sandra to the door to her complex. She fished out her keys and unlocked the door. "I'm home!" she yelled, immediately grabbing the attention of her mother and younger brother. "Everyone, Ryuji. Ryuji, everyone. He's here to translate Japanese to English for me. Yadda, yadda yadda. Come on, let's go to my room-"

"Hang on a second," her mother said as she tried to walk off. Sandra saw the smile plastered on her face and knew what she was going to say. "This is the first time you've brought a friend home." Ryuji wasn't the least bit worried about meeting her mother, but he saw the look on Sandra's face. "It's very nice to meet you, Ryuji. **M****usume ga tomodachi irutte koto ha ii to omou yo**."

He was caught slightly off guard when he heard her speak Japanese. "_**Yorokobi wa, subete watashi no monodesu**_. _**Watashi wa anata ga koko ni sunde o tanoshimi kudasai**_," he replied in a bow as he offered his hand to her mother.

Sandra groaned. "Okay, you've met him. Bye." She stormed up to her room without waiting for Ryuji, though she could hear his footsteps fast approaching. He appeared confused when he entered her bedroom. "Mom's making a big deal out of me making friends here. It's annoying." She clapped her hands and threw herself on her bed. "So what's this test on again?"

He set her duel disk on her desk and dug a notebook from his backpack. "Ancient Egypt," he said to her. "We have to answer questions on the Old, Middle and New kingdoms."

She blew a gum bubble and popped it loud. "Great. Figures it makes sense to give a test the first week of class. Okay, whip out the notes." He tossed his notebook her way and she caught it without looking.

"It's the first page," he said as he sat next to her, taking out another notebook and turning to a clean page. As he took out some pens, he watched her attempt to read what he'd written down. Her lips made shapes as she sounded out whatever words she could read in her head. At this range, he could easily see her natural beauty. Not an ounce of makeup touched her skin like most of the girls that hounded him; the only sign of her femininity in her was below eye level. After a few seconds she looked up at him, her eyebrows pulled in.

"I have no idea what this says."

"Don't worry," he told her. "It's easy." He handed her the clean papers and pointed to the first lines of text. "Right here, I started out with the basics of the three kingdoms of ancient Egypt. You remember what they're called, right?"

She nodded. "New, Middle and Old kingdoms." She started writing as he recited his notes. "I am so glad you speak English, otherwise I'd be fucked." His mind halted momentarily when she spoke, but he quickly returned to where he'd left off. The continued that way for twenty minutes before Sandra said, "There she goes again."

"Hmm?"

"Mom's calling me for something."

Ryuji gave her a strange look. "I didn't hear anything." She looked baffled when he replied to her. "Seriously. There wasn't any noise coming from downstairs." He set down his notebook and looked at her. "Maybe your mind's still a little jumpy from the duel earlier. Try and block out any distractions."

She still looked confused. "Yeah…" Sandra didn't hear the voice again for the rest of the time Ryuji was there. Every now and then they took a break and he tested her on her knowledge. She did surprisingly well, though he couldn't help laughing at her poor attempt to write her answers in katakana. "It makes _some_ sense," she told him, "but still. What the hell's with all the symbols?"

"I could say the same about English," he replied. "It's a complete mash-up of all these different languages."

"But at least you're bilingual like my mom. You're not suffering from Language Barrier Syndrome." Sandra tore her notes out from the notebook. "Anyway, thanks for the help. You're keeping me alive in that class."

"It was no trouble at all. You can come to me if you need help for anything." He took her hand in his and stared into her eyes. "And I mean, _anything_." There was a moment of awkward silence between the two before Sandra tore her hand out of his grasp.

"O…kay, I think I've got the message." She caught the time on her cable box. "Guess you should head out now before Mom goes nuts."

He nodded and stood. "Alright, I'll see you in school tomorrow." There was another awkward silence between the two before he brushed his hand against her cheek. "Good night," he said before turning and leaving her room. A small smile came onto her face. She sat on her window sill and watched Ryuji leave her house. He stopped for a moment and turned to look up at her, waving and smiling. She returned the gesture and watched him drive off in his car. As he vanished behind the corner, she chuckled to herself.

"He so wants to get into my pants."

**"I doubt it's only that."**

* * *

><p>The second the door was closed, Yugi ran to his desk and turned on his computer. His friends could sense his anxiety, and so could the pharaoh's spirit. There was someone else wearing what looked like a Millennium Item. It couldn't have been a coincidence that she appeared out of the blue. Just the thought of another murderous psychopath like Marik or Bakura's dark sides, or perhaps one even worse. Anzu pulled a chair next to him. "I don't think you'll find anything about it online," she said to him.<p>

"That's why I'm going to contact Marik," Yugi replied. "Either he or Isis should know something about this." Nobody wanted to ask what would happen if they didn't; the likelihood of them being baffled was small, but the possibility still remained. After waiting for a connection to appear, Yugi's face lit up slightly when he saw the video between him and Marik link.

"Yugi!" the Egyptian exclaimed over the video feed. "Anzu, Jonouchi, Hiroto! It's good to see you guys again." Everyone greeted Marik, and Isis when she briefly appeared from behind him. "We weren't expecting a call from you. What's the occasion?"

The smile fell from Yugi's face. "Marik, I think we have a problem. There's a new girl in my class who has this weird-looking pendant-"

"It looks like a Millennium Item! And she said she got it from a flea market in Egypt!" Jonouchi cut in. "I thought you said there were only seven of 'em!"

Marik appeared confused. "There _are_ only seven Millennium Items. There's the Eye, Rod, Necklace, Scales, Key, Ring and Puzzle. It's been that way since they were created 3,000 years ago. Are you sure it wash't just your imagination?"

Yugi nodded. "I'm absolutely sure. This isn't a story I want to make up." He glanced beside him when Anzu started going through her phone, and she flashed a picture of Sandra she'd taken before they left the restaurant. She held her phone up to the screen.

"Can you see it?" Marik leaned closer to the webcam and squinted. He stared in silence for a moment. His eyes quickly widened.

"…I see what you mean." His voice grew concerned. "Send me that picture in an email. I'll show it to my sister and we'll go through some records. But my gut instinct is telling me this thing is a fake."

"A fake? Why would someone make a fake Millennium Item?" Hiroto asked.

Marik shrugged his shoulders. "Either money or attention. Fake Items have popped up before. We've investigated them, and even saw them up close, but they were all frauds. So you most likely have nothing to worry about, Yugi. The worst outcome is the girl got conned at the market."

A fake Millennium Item? Whether true or not, the thought didn't sit well with him. "Okay. Thanks for looking into this, Marik. Tell everyone we say hi." Marik waved to his friends before the video feed cut off, and Yugi shut down the program.

"Guess we'll just have to wait for an answer," Hiroto said.

Jonouchi shrugged his shoulders. "It's the only thing we can do." He yawned and stretched his arms above his head. "Come on, shouldn't we be studying'?"

"You're right," Anzu replied as she opened up her bag. "Good thing I brought the notes with me."

* * *

><p>Sandra spun around, facing her door. "What?" she said to the voice, wondering where it'd come from. She stormed over to the door and opened it, yelling to the lower level. "Mom! You calling me?"<p>

"No, Sandra," she replied, and the teenager closer her door.

**"It was me."** Again the voice said, bringing Sandra to search her room. The television wasn't on. Nobody was hiding in her closet, or under her bed. Her brothers had disappeared into their rooms for the night, and there wasn't a single person out on the street. Finding the culprit was beginning to annoy her. **"Why are you so afraid?"** the voice asked. **"I'm right in front of you."** Sandra turned around again, thinking it had come from behind her, but found nothing. **"Go to the mirror."**

"The mirror…" She grew more and more confused. "You'd better get your ass out here," she said to whoever was speaking. There was no response following her words. Slowly, Sandra reached for her closet door again and pulled it open, keeping her right hand in a fist just in case of a sudden intruder. No one came out, to her surprise, and her shoulders slightly relaxed. "The mirror," she repeated, and stared at the glass sheet hanging on the door. She took a step away from it for a second, thinking it ridiculous to look in the mirror, then went against her thoughts and stepped closer to it again. She stood directly in front of it, seeing nothing but her own reflection. The gash in her chin that she'd received from Kaiba's limousine was nearly healed, the only evidence of her encounter being the stitches in her skin. Her elbow was getting better, looking closer to its normal state. She laid her hand against the glass. "Okay, I'm at the mirror. Now quit fucking with me."

And as she requested, the voice revealed itself in the form of herself, a changed version of herself. Her hair had been moved away from her face, showing the eyes that had brightened. Sandra gasped and jumped backwards, immediately taking a fighting stance. She stayed that way until the voice spoke again. **"What are you afraid of?"** She didn't budge. **"Calm yourself. There is no possible way for me to harm you." **Slowly, Sandra inched back to the mirror. She relaxed her stance and touched the mirror again, seeing her reflection change its appearance. **"You've found me."** Her eyes were wide as she stared at the person in the mirror.

"I'm going crazy," Sandra said to herself. "It finally hit me. Either it was Kaiba's car or culture shock got to me." Sandra backed away. "Or maybe I was born schizophrenic and it's just activated." She sat down on her bed, watching as her reflection seemed to walk out of the mirror and sit next to her. "Yup, I'm gone. Time to pack my things and ship off to the nearest looney bin."

The figure watched her flop backwards. **"You haven't gone crazy,"** the figment said to her. **"I'm not a creation of a disturbed mind."**

"Oh, really? Then, what, you're a ghost?" Sandra sat up and stared at the figment. Slowly, she raised her hand and reached for its arm. Her fingers went through its translucent body to the other side. Her eyes widened. "Whoa… Am I dreaming?" She repeated her actions, going through the figment's torso and face.

**"Please stop doing that."**

"Sorry." Sandra retracted her hand. "Okay, so you're a ghost. I'm talking to a ghost." Silence. "I can live with that. But who are you? And why are you in my bedroom?"

**I'm not here by choice,"** she replied, and pointed to the pendant hanging around her neck. Sandra's eyes widened again when she realized it was exactly the same as hers. **"I'm in here. It's almost as if I'm trapped."**

"Trapped?" Sandra raised an eyebrow. "Sheesh. Someone must've had it out for you." She stood up and paced around the room. "So let me get this straight. You're a ghost, and your soul is 'trapped' inside of a clunky piece of jewelry my mom forces me to wear. But you're not here to haunt me. Did I get all that?" She stopped and crossed her arms, appearing lost in thought. "Do you have some kind of name, or am I naming you?"

The ghost shook her head. **"No. I don't trust the judgement of someone with language as colorful as yours."** Sandra slumped and huffed. **"Sana."**

"Huh?"

**"My name. Call me Sana."**

"Alright. So, Sana, where're you from?"


	6. Duel 6: Voices and Miniskirts, Oh My!

It was late when Sandra passed out in her room, still dressed in her clothes from the previous day. A loud knocking on her door suddenly woke her up, sending her body shooting up from the mattress, accompanied by her alarm clock going off. "Dammit," she groaned, and stretched her arms above her head. "Who's there?" Her mother walked into the bedroom, carrying a box and a stern look on her face. Still half asleep, Sandra squinted as the box was tossed onto her lap. "What's this?"

"I got a call from your school," her mother replied, "about a certain Canadian transfer student showing up in the WRONG UNIFORM." The last two words woke up the teenager. "Honestly, Sandra, I can't understand why you can't be enrolled in one school without me getting a complaint from them. You're almost seventeen years old! Why is it so difficult for you to follow the rules?" Her mother continued, but Sandra started tuning her out as she got up from the bed and reached for the box. "...which is why I had to go all the way down to the store yesterday and get you the right one-"

"WHAT?" she yelled, ripping the lid off the container. Inside laid a pink blazer with white trim, resting above a collared white shirt and pleated blue skirt. Sandra didn't look at it for another second. "No. I'm not wearing this crap." She tossed the box onto the floor and walked to her closet, only to have the door shut by her mother.

"You don't have a choice in this, Sandra. That's your school uniform, the PROPER one, and you ARE going to wear it." She picked up the box and laid it back on the bed. "You know, I thought us moving here would be a fresh start, something better than what we had in Canada. But you keep on reverting back to your old ways, back to doing the same things that got you expelled from your old school." Sandra rolled her eyes. It was the same speech she'd heard after her mother got the expulsion letter from the high school she attended three months before, when they still lived in Vancouver. "Your brothers took the adjustment well. Look at Jack! He's got a nice job here! And even Jason is getting used to his new school." There she went again, comparing her to her siblings. Her mother began to calm down. "Look, the point is that you've got to be open for change. And that starts with wearing your uniform. Now get ready for school before you're late." Without another word the woman left her daughter in peace, shutting the door behind her.

Sandra huffed. "Shit..." It sank in: she had no other options. Her old uniform was torn up, and there was no way her mother or any tailor would be able to repair it in time. She looked at the box again. The blazer was so pink, too much for her to bear wearing in public. The color made her sick to her stomach.

"**Just get it over with."** Sandra looked up from the box and saw Sana manifest from the pendant. She jumped, temporarily forgetting about the ghost's presence. **"Your mother is right. There are times where you need to follow the rules, regardless of how you feel about it."**

"You're not helping me," she complained. "You have no idea how humiliating this'll be. It's not like you have to wear the stupid uniform." Reluctantly, Sandra decided to go with it. She pulled off her sleeping shirt and headed for the closet, retrieving a clean bra and underwear. "This is gonna suck."

Sana rolled her eyes. **"The more you complain about it, the more it will bother me. Now hurry up and get dressed. I don't want to hear any more of your bickering with the teachers."** Sandra scowled at her as she got dressed. She found a pair of loafers under the clothes in the box, next to a blue ribbon and groaned again, hating everything about her new school more and more. She again wondered if the rumors she'd heard from her friends in Canada were, indeed, true, and pictured it in her mind. A chill ran down her spine as she pulled the socks up her calves and put her shoes on. She studied herself in the mirror.

"I look like an idiot." Sana stood next to her and before Sandra's eyes, her clothing changed to match hers. "Whoa. How'd you do that?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, whatever. Let's just get this day over with." Sandra grabbed the notes from the night before and shoved them into her backpack, and strapped on her helmet. She pulled on her book bag and headed for the door, but stopped before reaching for the door knob. "Hold on a second." Sana watched her quickly spin around and dive into the closet, showing off a pair of spandex shorts and her red sneakers as she returned. "They can't give me grief for wearing these," she said with a smirk as she put them on. "At least now I can manage." Without any further delays, Sandra grabber her skateboard and deck, and left the house.

Skating to school felt strange for the Canadian. She was constantly distracted by the breeze hitting her exposed legs and her skirt flying up. "Dammit," she complained, "I knew this was a bad idea."

"**Relax,"** Sana told her. **"The sooner we get there, the sooner you'll forget about it. Now hurry."** But relaxing wasn't as simple as Sana made it sound. She swerved several times to avoid oncoming drivers, and experienced a mini-flashback of the previous Friday's accident that had her personally meeting the grill of Kaiba's limousine. She cringed at the thought and shook it from her mind as she arrived at the school. The short walk from the entrance through the main hallway and upstairs to her homeroom felt like forever to Sandra. She stopped every few meters to curse and pull down her skirt as much as it allowed. Students passing her by stared at her, some clapping their hands and congratulating her on her victory against Kaiba, others whispering to their friends in the language she barely understood. She groaned again. **"They're shocked."**

"This is exactly what I was afraid of." Sandra found her classroom and quickly ducked in, trying desperately to sneak to the back and hide herself before anyone else recognized her.

"Sandra? Whoa!" Mission failed. Slowly she turned around and saw Yugi's gang, all gawking at her in disbelief. "Oh my god, we barely recognized you." Embarrassment started to sink in. She gave them a reluctant wave and quickly reached into her bag, taking out a stick of gum and placing it in her mouth – her method of keeping it cool. She faced them again and chewed the sugar-coated stick, feeling it moisten and become soft enough for her to blow a decent sized bubble.

"Yeah," she started, "I kind of got busted by my mom. So she's forcing me to wear this atrocity."

"Well I think it's great you're making an effort to follow the rules," Anzu said to her. She could see the embarrassment written all over Sandra's face. "Don't worry about it. Soon you won't even remember the difference of the uniform." Sandra muttered a 'mhm' under her breath and took her seat behind her brunette classmate, tucking her belongings under her desk. She sighed and as she looked up, spotted Ryuji walking in.

Another sigh escaped her. "Well, at least his stupid pick-up tactics will distract me." The teacher walked in behind him and glanced over her students. Her eyes stopped on Sandra, noticing the correct uniform on her, and sat down with what looked like a satisfied expression.

"Alright, alright, everyone settle down." The students began to quiet down and everyone took their seats. Ryuji sat down next to Sandra and turned to her, falling silent when he saw the uniform on her. She looked like a completely different person, although annoyed all the same. He flashed her a smile and thumbs up, and she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "I hope everyone spent their time wisely over the weekend, because it's time to test your knowledge." She pat her hand on a stack of testing books and papers and stood up. "Don't worry, the test is short answer. Nothing anyone here is incapable of." As she started passing the papers out, Sandra's eyes wandered around the room. They first jumped to Yugi; he seemed a bit too giddy for the test in her eyes. Ryou was next to him, and looked slightly worried as the paper was laid on his desk. She couldn't see Anzu's face, but she knew the brains of the bunch was more than prepared. Ryuji was definitely prepared, she knew that from the notes he shared with her. Hiroto and Jonouchi seemed like they'd do okay on their own, although she thought she sensed a hint of confusion in their expressions. And then as she stared at the ceiling, Sana appeared next to her, staring down at the test paper on her desk. It almost scared the Canadian teen how much Sana looked like her. Maybe it was a case of missing identity: she didn't remember much about herself, so she assumed a similar form to the first person who could see her. Looking closer at her, Sandra remembered how the clothes on her spectral form suddenly matched hers. _'Yup, mistaken identity. At least her boobs aren't huge.'_

The test was surprisingly easy for Sandra. She normally wasn't one for tests, and finding the answers one after the other amazed her. Sana remained silent as she observed everyone, studying each of the humans in the room. Sandra rose from her seat and handed in her test paper, trying to move quickly to make sure none of the male students would have time to look up her skirt. The moment she returned to her seat she laid her head down and stared at the wall, her mind feeling exhausted. She couldn't remember the last time she actually sat through an entire test without fuss. _'Maybe I can take a nap...'_

"**Don't even think about it,"** Sana told her, interrupting her thoughts. Her eyes were wide. **"And yes, I can read your thoughts. You should be able to do the same with me."** Sandra raised an eyebrow. She was finding the whole ghost situation stranger by the second. It seemed simple enough the night before, but all the new perks were making her question how much truth laid in the words of a figment who barely remembered anything about herself. Maybe all that talk of being trapped in the locket was a figure of speech; maybe it was a code used by psychologists to diagnose something with schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder; the first one seemed more likely in her head. **"I already told you,"** the spirit said, **"you're not mentally disturbed."**

_'That's just what a schizo figment would say'_

Sana crossed her arms. **"Believe what you will, but I know what I'm talking about."** Sandra almost didn't see Ryuji's hand waving in her face. Looking at him a second longer made her realize his hand was going straight through Sana's groin. She clasped her own hands over her mouth and tried to suppress her laugh.

"What's so funny?" he asked her. "Anyway, the test is over. You can relax now." She glanced around the room and saw people regrouping all around, the ones passing her by giving her congratulatory high-fives. "After she gives a test, she lets us hang out for the rest of the class. It's a good way for us to calm down and collect ourselves." Sandra noticed everyone begin to gravitate around them and sighed.

"What brings you all this time?" she asked, sounding slightly bored. "I'm not dueling anyone right now."

Jonouchi gave her a smirk. "That's exactly why I'm here. I wanna try my deck 'gainst yours."

"Already?" she asked. Sandra had brought her deck, but she didn't expect a request to duel her so quickly. Several other students came up to her after hearing Jonouchi and asked for a chance to face the girl who took down Kaiba, all begging and pleading with her. It was all starting to give her a headache.

"**Just calm down,"** Sana told her. **"You're over-thinking things again. Tell them you'll get back to them later."**

Sandra sighed. "Okay, I'll do that." Everyone looked at her strange, thinking she'd spoken to them. "Oh, no, uh... I mean... Let me just think about it for a minute. I'll get back to you all." The students cleared and left her alone, giving her space to breathe. "Jonouchi." His head popped up at the sound of his name. "I'll duel you, but some other time. I'm exhausted. Too much Japanese in one day."

Anzu pat Sandra's back lightly. "Don't worry about it. We'll continue speaking in English for as long as you need."

"Yeah, but why are you guys sticking around?" she asked all of them. "I mean, you barely know me. I just joined here three days ago. How am I suddenly your friend?"

She heard Yugi start to laugh after a moment of silence, followed by Anzu, Jonouchi, Hiroto, Ryuji and Ryou. "Sandra," he started, "it's just how we are. We all became friends in unconventional ways." Yugi began to tell her the stories on how each of them joined his ever-growing group: how it was just Anzu and him at the start; how Jonouchi and Hiroto used to bully him; the rivalry between Yugi's family's gameshop and that of Ryuji's; and how Ryou was also a transfer student. "We all encountered trials when meeting each other," he summarized, "but we've pulled through and discovered something greater. And you're the latest addition to our group."

Sandra's eyebrows furrowed. Was he serious? "Look, I appreciate the fact that you guys consider me a friend, but don't you think this is happening a bit _too_ fast?" she asked. "I mean, nobody can become friends in a heartbeat."

Sana materialized next to her and rolled her eyes. **"Oh, stop it, Sandra. They're trying to be nice to you."**

"So what?" she said out loud, catching everyone off guard.

"Uh, who are you talking to?" Hiroto asked, giving her a strange stare. "None of said anything after you did."

Her eyes widened briefly. "Oh..." She looked at Sana and realized she was the only one who could hear her. "Sorry... Excuse me." Sandra stood up and the group watched her walk out of the room. Ryou had noticed a weird expression on her face, appearing something like a mix of embarrassment and discomfort. The longer he watched her, the more he felt a knot form in his stomach. It was the sickening feeling again, rising and stirring within. Quickly, he stood up and clasped a hand over his mouth, running out of the room.

His friends watched with worried glances. "He's been getting pretty sick lately," Anzu stated. "I woder what's wrong with him."

"And it only happens when he's around Sandra. Strange..." Ryuji tapped a finger to his chin. "He's head-over-heels for her. Infatuation gone haywire."

"You think so?"

He nodded. "I'm positive. Why else would he be so nervous around her?"

Yugi crossed his arms. "You make a good point, but I'm still worried about him." After debating with himself for a moment, he stood up. "I'm going to check on him. Be right back."

Ryou made it to the bathroom just in time before his breakfast spilled out of his body. Just as in the hospital, his darker half quickly took over his body, wiping the vomit from his mouth. "Pathetic host," he complained. "You can't even handle a little rage." He shook his head with a low chuckle. With his senses gathered together, Bakura opened the door to the bathroom and poked his head out. Sandra was in the hallway, pacing back and forth and speaking out loud to nobody. He listened closely to her conversation.

"Seriously," the ginger haired teenager said, "you've gotta stop speaking to me when I'm around people. They'll start thinking I'm insane."

Then he heard the other voice. **"You don't have to respond to me verbally,"** she argued back, **"I already told you I can read your mind. All you have to do is think of what you want to tell me."** He began to make out a translucent form standing next to the Canadian girl. Squinting, he focused more until the form fully revealed itself. He could easily see Sana facing Sandra, and his blood immediately boiled. It _was_ her.

"It's not that easy, you know," she complained back. "I can't focus on one conversations and think for another one. Do you know how much concentration that requires me to have?"

"**Yes. And I can see you lack it. A lot."**

"Hey!" Sandra realized how loud she was being and quieted herself down. "Can you PLEASE not be so obnoxious?"

Sana shook her head. **"You're one to talk."** Sandra was too distracted to realize she was being watched: not only by Bakura, but Yugi as well. Bakura noticed the young duelist's presence and hid himself in the bathroom again.

Yugi had intended on seeing how Ryou was feeling, but hearing Sandra's voice distracted him. He was left bewildered when he saw her talking to herself and repeating a name he'd never heard of before. "What's up with her?" he whispered to himself.

"Look," she said, raising her voice slightly, "I don't care whether you remember all or none of your past. You're in MY mind, you poltergeist, and MY stupid necklace, so I make the rules. You got it?"

_'Poltergeist?'_ he thought to himself. Her words were starting to make some sense, though what they sounded like when together left him more confused. He turned to the spirit living in his own pendant. "Please tell me you heard that, too."

The spirit of the puzzle manifested next to him. **"Yes, and it has me unsettled. Marik said there were fake Items out there, but I'm starting to doubt he knows everything."**

"This is getting weirder and weirder..." Yugi sighed. "I'm going to ask her what's going on." Before his other half could respond, he rounded the corner and walked up to Sandra. Sana noticed before she did and pointed behind the human. Sandra looked over her shoulder briefly and saw Yugi before turning back to the figment. The way Sana looked at him was different from before: her gaze became a scowl and her mouth tightened.

"**...I don't like him,"** was all she said before fading away. Sandra's eyes were back on the King of Games, who stopped in front of her with an unreadable look.

"Is everything alright, Sandra?" he asked, wondering what she'd say if she did talk. She seemed more nervous than before: her stance was tense and she twiddled her fingers in her hair. Her jaw moved more erratically, crushing the gum in her mouth.

"Yeah, everything's cool," she responded quickly. "Just...got a call from my mom all of a sudden. She was making sure I was, uh...in the right uniform." He gave her an incredulous look. "What? Get off my back, man."

"Something's up," he said in a more serious tone. "We're worried, Sandra. You're acting very bizarre all of a sudden-"

She was quickly getting annoyed. "Look, you little pipsqueak. I said everything's fine, and I mean it. So just leave me alone and quit bugging me about it."

She could tell he wasn't buying it. Neither of them would budge. This was something Yugi didn't plan on brushing off; with everything weird that happened in the past, he knew it was better to find out all the details than leave it alone. He was tired of all the bull, and the last thing he needed was more danger coming to him. "Sandra, I'm not walking away from this. I saw you talking to yourself, and I heard you say there was a ghost in your necklace." Her eyes widened, her mouth agape. "You can either tell me what's going on, or you can leave me to make my own assumptions."

Sandra groaned. **"Just walk away,"** Sana told her.

"What did your ghost say this time?"

She groaned again. "It's not a ghost, it's a figment of my imagination." She couldn't believe she was doing this, but it was better than having him stalk her until she complied. "I know this is going to sound crazy, but... I'm hearing a voice in my head. It's telling me weird crap that makes no sense, like how it lives inside my necklace or some shit like that." She watched him process the information, though she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "You probably think I'm insane."

He shook his head. "Sandra...you're not crazy." He thought of the proper words to say to her. How was he going to explain this without weirding her out even more? His focus shifted to the locket around her neck. "You said it told you it lives in the necklace?" She nodded slowly, and he knew, though a part of him wished she'd said no. "Oh boy... Okay, Sandra. Listen carefully." Yugi stopped himself again and remained silent for while, then nodded and closed his eyes. Sandra squinted at first, her eyes widening again as she watched him grow several inches in height. The bones in his face became more defined and strands of the hair dyed blond stood up, transforming him to look like an older version of himself. He opened his eyes, which had become sharper and darker, and they stared at each other.

"**Your necklace is the same as mine,"** Yami said to her, his voice deeper.

Sandra gulped nervously. "Whoa... Did your balls just drop?"


End file.
